Lonely Strength
by shouldabeenadog
Summary: Abandoned. Sora has locked all the keyholes, but then what good is a locked world if it can always be unlocked? Now its up to Riku to clean up Sora's mess. NonYaoi, Rikucentric.
1. Riku, The Injured

I don't own Kingdom Hearts, and all characters belong to their respective owners.

**Riku, the Injured.**

"Did you know, your majesty, that getting your fingers pinched in a door that big really hurts?" Riku asked, as he rubbed his swollen fingers. It had been a few hours since the door had been shut, and still his hand was throbbing.

"Stop calling me that Riku, I'm not 'your Majesty', I'm Mickey. How is your hand?"

"The swelling is going down. But wait, wait wait wait, what happened to the heartless?"

Indeed, the heartless that Mickey and Riku had struggled to fight against while Sora closed the door had disappeared.

"I know that i was helping close the door, so i didn't see anything, what happened Your--I mean, Mickey?"

"Well, after i zapped those two darksides, i didn't see any more heartless, i thought i had scared them away, but they should have come back by now. Wanna go find them?"

"Sure" Riku said, unsheathing souleater, "Any particular direction we should go?"

"Well, lets use this door as a guidepost, we'll go directly opposite it."

So, the two set off at a brisk pace, trying to find a few heartless. The scenery was pretty uniform, a muted grey color to everything. The only landmark was the big white door that they had just left.

"why did i stay" Riku thought. "I could have left and helped Sora push the door closed, not only would i not be stuck here in kingdom hearts, but my fingers wouldn't have been pinched." A slight chuckled emanated from his through t. "I stayed because i regretted what i had done. I betrayed my friend and endangered everyone by not having a strong enough heart."

WHUMP

"Riku, Riku are you alright?"

"OWWWW" Riku said, slowly getting up. "What did i hit? Oh. Damn."

Riku had just run smack into the big doors. "So, kingdom hearts isn't that big is it?" Riku asked, rubbing his forehead.

"Nope, if we ran at about 8 miles an hour, and it only took us half an hour to hit, sorry Riku, the doors again, then the world is only 4 miles long."

"Well, at least we won't lose sight of these doors then. But now what are we going to do?"

"Well, we ran opposite the doors last time, lets try opposite the frame, we might find something that way."

So again, they set off at a brisk pace, and again, Riku got back to thinking, "I had the keyblade for a time, was that because of the strength of my heart? Or was it the strength of the darkness? Speaking of, why do i feel that it hasn't left me? Even though Ansem was killed, i still feel like i did before he possessed me, having the taint, but not sure if the canvas is black with white paint or white with black..."

THUMP

"OWWWW, Mickey, why didn't you tell me about the door frame?" Riku moaned, "I am definetly going to have a lump on my head."

"Well Riku, i guess there isn't anything here except the door."

"The very HARD door, Mickey."

"Yes well, what are we going to do?"

"First, I'm gonna freeze my blade with a blizzaga spell and use it as an icepack. After that I'll worry about more important matters."

* * *

A couple of hours had passed since Riku's head became intimate with the doorway, and again, the swelling had gone down long enough for him to hold a conversation. "Lets do an inventory. That way we know what stuff we have, and what stuff we can bitch and moan about over the campfire." Mickey stated 

"I've got a deck of cards, souleater, a whetstone, no food, no wood, and nothing to start your so-called campfire."

"Well, I'm not much better, got the keyblade, got pen and paper, and my ring, if we ever can send a message, and thats it."

"Mickey, we have no food, no water, no shelter, no heat, and no way out. Joy."

"Don't be glum Riku, I'm sure we'll figure something out."

"Sure, right. In the meantime, lets do a little exploring, really get a lay of the land, and hopefully I won't break my neck in the process. If you get lost, just come back to the door."

"OK Riku see you here in about say an hour."

"Uhh, i don't have a watch."

"Hmmm, and neither do I. OK! just come back when you are tired."

This time they split up, Riku covering the area between the door frames, and Mickey between the doors themselves. However, all was for nothing. There just was nothing at all in Kingdom Hearts.

"You know, for the heart of all worlds I expected a little more...stuff. It seems like someone just threw a bucket of grey paint over everything and forgot about it."

"I know what you mean Riku, but think of it this way: the door looks nice."

Riku just shook his head at the mouse's sheer optimism, "Micky, are you hungry?"

"No, not really. Why do you ask?"

"I'm not hungry, but i haven't eaten since I left Hollow Bastion after Sora beat me, and that was days ago. When was the last time you ate?"

"A couple of days, but yeah, I'm not hungry either.""Heh, go figure, it might be that we are still running on adrenaline from all the fighting, we've been at it for a while.

"I guess Riku."

"So now what do we do?"

"Do you know Gin Rummy?"

"Yeah, Sora and I used to play it a lot, he was never any good" Riku said with a chuckle, "Care to go a round Mickey?"

"Nothing better to do."

So they played, by about the third round they had completely forgotten about their surroundings, and by about the 6th, they lost track of time.

"Gin." Riku said again, laying out four aces, the king queen and jack of spades, and three fives.

"Damnit Riku that was your SIXTIETH straight win...wait. Sixty wins? We've been at the game for sixty rounds! But, it doesn't feel like all that much time has passed, and I'm still not tired, not hungry, and not even thirsty. What is going on Riku?"

"You aren't the only one. This place...I fell that it is giving me energy. Its like Kingdom hearts is sustaining me."

They sat in uncomfortable silence.

"How long are we going to be in here?" Riku said.

"Originally, i came here to save the worlds, and then fade from history and die. However, that doesn't look like its going to happen. I hadn't expected to find you here Riku. How did you get here?"

"Ansem."

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>..

A/N: In addition to Re-editing, I am also consolidating some of my chapters. More words to chew on and all that.


	2. Arms Present! FIRE!

I don't own Kingdom Hearts, and all characters belong to their seperate owners.

* * *

**Arms Present! FIRE!**

"Ansem. After he took me over, he cared little for my spirit, he just sort of let me watch in the background. However, after I held him back from killing Sora in Hollow Bastion, he got a little...angry. He threatened to blast me into oblivion, but I told him that without my spirit, my body would quickly die. So he banished me here, were I couldn't mess with his plans, and would still be around to keep the body alive. Let me guess, you followed the heartless to their source and ended up here right?"

"Wasn't that hard actually."

"You don't say. Care to teach me a little?" Riku said, unsheathing souleater.

"Well, lets start with what you know."

THWANG! The loud vibration fell flat on the desolate world as Riku's strike was blocked by the keyblade.

"Well, you've got speed," Mickey said, "But not as much power as I expected." And the battle was on. Riku swung overhand, and was again stopped by the keyblade. He twisted the sword and attempted to make a sideswipe at Mickey's abdomen. Again, the ring of steel on steel was heard.

"Well, at least he isn't fast enough to dodge my hits" Riku thought, as he tried an upward slash, only to find zero resistance. "Or not." as he turned around and jumped backward to avoid the strike that was aimed at his back. Unfortunately, he didn't jump back fast enough, and got a hit on his shoulder. Needless to say, Riku was pissed. He charged, preparing for an overhead strike, then jumped at the last second and brought souleater crashing right down on the keyblade, which had move just in time to block. This got Riku even madder.

'Within'

He tried other moves, even rolling behind Mickey and trying a stab, but all were stopped.

'The power within.'

'Darkness. The true Darkness.'

Riku stopped. He stood eyeing the mouse warily, and then announced, "You want to see my power? I will show you mouse! The power of darkness!"

With that, Riku was swallowed in a completely dark mist, and when he emerged, he was different. His yellow shirt had been changed into dark red, and his blue pants had become an eerie purple color. The black of his clothing became as dark as the heartless, yet the white borders still remained.

"Amazing,"Riku said, "I have so much power, even with Ansem gone. I am not a slave to the darkness, but a master of it." Riku cracked a smile. "Lets see how you fare against me at my peak."

"Oh dear." Was all Mickey had time to say before he had to block with the keyblade. But unlike previous strikes, this one had some force behind it. However, Riku stopped after this attack. He stood there, holding the blade in front of him, examining the power coursing through it and his hand. Suddenly, he swung, and was instantly in front of mickey, where he swung again, leaving the king barely enough time to get his head out of the way before the blade came crashing down on the ground. The king realized, (finally) that this was going to take all the effort he had. So, he aimed the keyblade at Riku, and began one of his most favorite attacks: Sonic Blade. Riku then began some fancy footwork trying to dodge the mouse's furious strikes, then pulled some of the dark energy out of himself and hurled it at the mouse. Mickey knocked it away, and it created a small crater where it landed. Mickey then threw his own blade at Riku, and began the strike raid combo, ending with Judgment, however, Riku just seemed to knock all of the strikes away.

"Very well then, an attack that has no equal," Riku said, "Hidden Door!" With that, Riku surrounded them with a circle of dark energy, and started dashing from the center of the circle straight for the edge, but instead of stopping, he disappeared. Mickey looked back in the middle of the circle to see that Riku was coming right for him again. "This can't be good." Mickey held up the keyblade to block, but it was little help from the force of the impact. He fell back down, and quickly rolled away as a huge gout of flame jumped up from the spot he had just been occupying. However, the magic eventually subsided, leaving Mickey with only a few scorch marks.

"I will not fall to darkness, Prepare yourself Riku!" He gripped the keyblade tighter and whispered, "Thera." Instantly his keyblade was bathed in a blinding light, which radiated and yet consumed all the available light in the world. Quite quickly, there was no light left, all was darkness. Riku had expected an attack, but nothing like this, he darted his head, left, right, trying to determine where the attack would come from. Didn't matter really, as a spear of light seemed to grow from his chest. "SAMPTA!" and then the spear exploded, engulfing Riku in a surge of light. Riku only screamed once, then blacked out.

* * *

"I'm surprised you are still alive Riku. I had yet to meet the being of darkness that could survive Thera-Sampta."

"Well, maybe I'm not pure darkness." Riku replied, coughing a bit as he sat up. Mickey just shook his head, "that attack seeks and destroys darkness, even if you had some in you before, you shouldn't have any now."

Riku examined himself, his shirt was still red (no hole thankfully, must have been a magical, rather than physical attack) and his violet pants hadn'te changed back to their previous colors. "Well, judging from my condition, I would have to say that I'm the being strong enough to resist it, nice to meet you." Riku said, extending a hand as if in a handshake.

"Riku, are you still yourself? Has the darkness reconquered you?"

"I don't think so Mickey, It's become a tool for me, I think, just like the keyblade is for you and Sora." Riku said, pointing at the golden blade in Mickey's hand. As if the mention of the blade had caused a reaction, the keyblade began to shake, then promptly disappeared. Only to reappear in Riku's outstretched hand.

"Now isn't this interesting."

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

Predictable ending? Yes. Do I care? No.

Thera Sampa, take it if you want, Riku probably won't be using it, too light based for him.

The attack that Riku uses against Sora in Hollow Bastion I named hidden door, since he seems to use hidden doorways to get places again, similar policy, if i made it, take it, just don't sue me later.


	3. Keyblade

I do not own Kingdom Hearts, and all characters belong to their respective owners.

**

* * *

Keyblade**

Riku sat, holding the keyblade in his hand, with a look of complete shock.

"But I am Dark." Riku said, pulling on his black straps for emphasis.

"And you weren't before?" Mickey asked.

"Yes, but that was different. I tried to steal the keyblade and used the power of darkness to strengthen my heart. I did no such thing this time."

"They keyblades, to put it simply, are dumb. They seek out the person with the strongest heart, regardless of allegiance. Since Sora already has a keyblade, I was the next in line with the strongest heart, then came you, then Beast. Apparently," the mouse chuckled, "You beat me in the rankings, and apparently," the mouses voice gained a tinge of worry, "Your old sword is either jealous or doing something else entirely." Riku turned and watched Souleater, and indeed a transformation was taking place. First, the blade itself was shrinking in size. Also, the spans between the "bone" in his sword retracted into the blade, as the handle retracted into the eye that was the pommel. The "joints" along the base of the weapon began snapping, and the spans between "bones" filled the space with ductile steel string. Finally, all that was left was a chain, with an eye at the end.

"Well well, you've got your first key-chain. What are you going to call it?"

"Lets see what it looks like first." Riku said, and attached the key-chain. The keyblade changed from its golden color to a pitch black. The handle morphed from its silver to a blood red, and the tip stopped looking like a key and more like a real weapon. It was the keyblade that Riku had used against Sora.

"Betrayal."

"A fitting name." Mickey said somberly.

"So Mickey, how many of these keyblades are there? Are there only two? And if the heartless have been defeated, why are the blades still around?"

"As far as I know there are only two. And keyblades really are tools, just like you said. Just because the nail is hammered in doesn't mean that the hammer disappears now does it? Besides, I don't like how we can't find the Heartless, they should be around somewhere, unless they escaped somehow, but I don't think that's possible, we looked all over this place."

As if at the mere mention of their name, shadows started appearing around Riku and Mickey.

"You ever heard the phrase, 'don't call us we'll call you?"

"Yeah, why do you ask?"

"Because I think that's how the heartless operate."

Mickey wasn't without a weapon for long, he pulled a knife from behind his back, as they faced down the small army of shadows.

"Riku, look at the sky; It's whiter! The heartless must have hid in the very fabric of this world, it was probably all white, but when the heartless came here, they absorbed themselves into the world and changed it to the grey color. OK philosophy class is over, its playtime!"

With that, the new keyblade master and king charged the heartless.

Mickey used his speed to dodge the heartless' attacks, often ducking, but sometimes jumping. He spun, and slammed the dagger into the chest of the nearest heartless, it dissolved into a black mist. He rolled forward and jabbed it backwards into the heartless he had passed, then spun to take head off the shadow in front of him. He took a scratch in the arm from another shadow, which he dispatched with a stab between the eyes.

Riku used the keyblade's length as a scythe, killing many heartless in his wake. He stopped, and back flipped over a heartless, slicing down its back, then spinning to clear the immediate area of heartless. They held back for a minute, which allowed Riku to brush back his hair, revealing a disturbing smile. He then went back to his task, by clearing a path of heartless with strike-raid, as he caught it, he threw it behind him, to catch those that had thought themselves safe. He then charged to the side, swinging first high, then low, then low again. Finally, he ended with a killing arc, which split the heartless in two before it dissolved.

He then ran over to Mickey, who was having difficulty with the shadows that remained. Riku stabbed through one that was facing him, then, using his back leg like a catapult, flinging a heartless behind him high into the air. He jumped up to meet it, then bisected with the keyblade in an arc, which fell upon a third heartless. However, Riku turned just in time to see Mickey, ogling Riku's his swordplay get run through by a shadow's hand. Riku, enraged at this spectacle, used dark force to rip each of the shadow's limbs out, finally, when it was just the head and body left, Riku cast a thunder spell while impaling the writhing torso. This heartless didn't dissolve, it exploded, and the pieces jerked, then dissolved into black mist. Recovering, Riku turned to look at the body of the king, only to be horrified as the body was engulfed in darkness, and out popped another shadow. Again, Riku used the darkness to immobilize the heartless in front of him. But then an idea struck him. He reached deeper into the darkness and found the gift that Maleficent had given him, the power to control the heartless.

"Why did you attack?" He demanded.

#We got hungry, and he didn't have a weapon. He did destroy two of the great ones in so little time. We aren't that stupid.#

Riku nodded, made sense. "Can you show me a way out of here?"

#Yes. However only those with light can open the door, but once its open, we can leave too.#

"Bide."

Riku closed his eyes.

"If I don't open the door, then they can't leave, but I am stuck here till eventually they get me. If I open it, I have my freedom, but they do to. Eventually they will get me if I remain, and how safe is the heart of all worlds with only heartless inside? I must go, and find a way, my way." Riku thought

"Show me the door weakling."

#Yes master#

The shadow walked along towards the Ivory doors of Kingdom Hearts. Along the way Riku considered what would happen. This looked to be the last heartless, since the land was now awash in a bright white. If Riku killed him, there would be no more heartless to make more heartless, ending the cycle and freeing him, allowing him to return home, or even better, to go to Olympus Coliseum, and test out his new weapon.

#We are here Master#

Riku now stood in front of the great doors. The shadow drew a pentagram on the ground in front of it, but stopped halfway on the last line, leaving a pentagon with four triangles and a line.

The shape solidified itself, and then disappeared, revealing a hole that looked like it burrowed under the doors.

#Crawl through master, and you will be free, and us along with you.#

"I will be leaving. You will die." With that Riku plunged the keyblade into the shadow and turned, destroying the shell that once held the king.

"That takes care of that, now homeward bound." and he stepped through the portal.

#Humans never were smart were they.#

#He didn't see us hiding in the Light.#

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

Finally, took four chapter but i finally got that fool boy out of kingdom hearts AND committed regicide to boot. Good day. In case you couldn't figure it out # denotes heartless speech.

Additionally, Riku has all the moves that Sora gets from leveling up (since he is so very close to Sora in strength) so no trinity limit(there is no trinity for Riku anyway), and no sonic blade (because Sora learned it from cloud.) However, Ragnorok, Strike-Raid, etc. are useable.


	4. Homecoming

Disclaimer: I do not own Kingdom Hearts, and all characters belong to their respective owners.

**Homecoming**

"OK! Things are looking up," Riku thought. The void he had come into from the hole was apparently either oxygen rich or had enough magic so that he didn't need to breathe. "Now, how do I get out of here?"

There didn't look to be anything in the void, much like there was nothing in Kingdom Hearts, except instead of a grey color, there was random colors splashed everywhere, and the hole he had come from and the doors of Kingdom Hearts Behind him. Riku thought for a minute, and then smacked himself on the head with his hand.

"Gah, I'm such an idiot, if I can use darkness, why not use all of the dark gifts?"

Riku felt around himself, searching for the power. Finally finding it, he grabbed a hold of it.

"Here we go."

Riku stuck out his hand and pulled on the space itself, tearing a hole through the dimensions, and then stepped through.

Riku was hip deep in water.

The sun was hot. The sand was smooth, and the water was warm. "Ahhh, its good to be home again."

Riku took a look around Destiny Islands. A lot had changed since he'd left. Many of the trees had grown bigger, and new ones were sprouting. The wooden palisade had been torn down, and the tree house had been extended, with more rooms and a diving board into the ocean.

"Wonder if anyone is around?"

Riku walked out of the water. He began by climbing the treehosue, but no one was there. He then crossed over to the other side of the island, and was surprised by what he saw.

Sora, Kairi, Wakka, Tidus, and even shy Selphie were all there. But the fact that struck Riku the most was that they were older. Much older. Kairi had grown her hair out, and Sora was now a good 6 feet. Tidus finally got a decent haircut, and carried himself much more maturely than before. Wakka was the most surprising, he was dressed like a priest. Which kinda explained Sora and Kairi's costumes: Sora in a tux, and Kairi in a wedding dress. Tidus and Selphie were there as best man and bridesmaid respectively. Judging by Tidus's nervousness, the service was almost over.

"You may now kiss the bride."

And Sora promptly did so.

After much cheering, the group walked over to where a cake lay on a table. Riku followed at a distance, not sure of what to do. Sora and Kairi cut the cake, and passed out pieces. "Now or never." Riku thought.

"Can I get one too?"

Wakka and Tidus both jumped nearly out of their skins at the sound of his voice. Selphie did a double, then a triple take, and Sora and Kairi had their mouths open so wide the cake could fit.

"Is that a no?"

"RIKU!" They all shouted.

"Riku, what are you doing here? How did you...When did...Where is...Gah! Riku, how did you get here? Why are you still so...young?" Sora (attempted) to say.

"Good to see you too." Riku replied. "Well, first I..." _choke_

"RIKU! Its you! Its you! Its you!" Kairi said, squeezing the life out of the poor boy. "Still a little girl at heart." Riku thought, as air continued to fail to flow into his lungs.

"Kairi _cough_ you are choking me _cough_."

"OH, I'm sorry Riku." Kairi said

"Its OK, its OK."

"Riku, wheres the King?" Sora asked, finally getting a complete question.

"Let me tell you the whole story after we got stuck in Kingdom Hearts."

MM

"You got your fingers caught! HA." Tidus said. And was swiftly smacked by Wakka.

"So the King is dead? He was so helpful to us. And now you have a keyblade to? Lets see it." Sora said."Very well." Riku summoned the keyblade, instantly Sora lost a little of the joy in his eyes upon seeing the blade. Kairi and the others noticably recoiled from the blade.

"Do you still have yours Sora?"

"Yup! I've even got this 'ultima' keychain on it. Its super cool. Here, I'll show you."

Sora summoned his own keyblade, and it seemed a good six inches longer than Riku's.

"The keyblade just sorta grew along with me." Sora said, laughing as he scratched the back of his head."

Then Sora and Riku's eyes met. They both knew what it meant.

"Same place?" Riku asked.

"Right after cake, you haven't had any food in 14 years." Sora said, again with a laugh and head scratch.

"Deal."

* * *

"Good cake, butter-cream frosting right?"

"Yup, Kairi made the whole thing from scratch."

Sora and Riku were on the promontory, sitting on the bent tree, staring at the waves.

"Just to let you know, I still have the dark powers. That should even things out a little, seeing as how your are now about a foot and a half taller than me."

"I kinda figured from the keyblade design. You still in control or is…"

"Still me, just think of it as I have a new tool to use."

"Ok then, no need to hold back."

Riku hopped off of the branch and summoned Betrayal.

"Lets get started."

Sora took his time getting off the branch, finally standing up, taking off his tuxedo jacket and tie, and summoning Ultima.

"Shouldn't we be using wooden...WHOA." was all Sora had time to say before he had to throw his blade up to block the overhead strike. Both men grinned. Sora then charged, swinging left to right, right to left, then turned and spun, trying to hit Riku in the side, only to find the boy's blade right in the way.

"Come on Sora, stop holding back!"

Riku did a short hop back, then swung in the air, instantly he was back to back against Sora. Both turned to their right and swung, both blades collided between them. Sora placed his off hand on the grip, while Riku placed his behind the teeth of his blade. Sora jumped and pushed off Riku's blade, then began to execute Ars Arcanum. Riku had expected this, and jumped high to avoid the ground attack, then he pointed his blade to the ground where Sora's attack would end, and let himself fall, putting all his weight on the tip of his blade. Sora barely had time to jump out of the way as Betrayal was buried in the sand.

"Smooth moove, now you have to get it out." Sora laughed.Riku just smirked, then formed dark energy into a ball and threw it at Sora. It hit him squarely in the chest, burning through the shirt and winding him. Riku casually pulled his blade out.

"Is this all you have Sora?"

In reply, Sora threw Ultima, Riku easily dodged it. Riku started to pull energy for another ball, when he was struck on the back by Sora's keyblade. Riku hit the dirt face first, then bounced back up, rubbing his back.

"New move huh?"

"I didn't spend all this time seducing Kairi."

Riku grinned. "HIDDEN DOOR" He held the keyblade aloft as the ring of energy surrounded the promontory, but this time, instead of charging from the middle of the circle, he appeared behind Sora. Sora jumped left, only to duck as Riku sailed overhead. The ground at Sora's feet suddenly got very hot, and he jumped to the right to avoid the flame, only to get sideswiped by Riku. Sora tried to get a lock on Riku, but the boy kept appearing and disappearing too quickly. The hotfoot that the gouts of flame were giving him was not helping. Then the magic cut out, and the circle was gone. Riku was crouched behind Sora, then, as the boy looked up, expecting an aerial attack, Riku swung at Sora's legs tripping the man and sending him flat on his back. Sora instinctively struck out with the keyblade, but Riku caught Ultima in the teeth of Betrayal and sent it flying away. Riku pointed his blade at Sora's throat.

"New move, but same predictability. You always did look to the clouds first, hopefully your wife will keep your feet on the ground."

Riku stuck out his hand, and pulled Sora up. Sora examined his tuxedo.

"Good thing i took the jacket and tie off, that force ball you burned a hole right through the shirt."

"Sorry about, we probably should have waited until after your wedding day for the welcome home fight."

"Nah, its ok, this was my dad's old tux, he won't mind. I hope."

Both of them laughed. Riku yawned as he waved goodbye to Sora, hand in hand with his new wife. Riku started out towards home. But when he got there, the house that he and his parents had lived in was gone.

"After Sora told them what happened to you, you know, they left after a while ya?" Wakka said, putting a hand on Riku's shoulder. "If you want, you can sleep at the temple, ya. I'll even forget about rent since you've been gone so long hahahahaha." Wakka said, with his characteristic laugh.

"Sure Wakka, I need a place to kinda sort things out."

"Anytime bro, you know the way right?" Wakka said, walking off.

"As long as you haven't moved it." Riku replied. Wakka just waved his hand in the air.

"Hopefully that's an affirmative." Riku thought. He headed out in the direction of the temple. He hadn't spent much time there, but it was a small island, and he hadn't been far away for that long (in his time, at any rate.)

"The island hasn't changed much for 14 years." Riku thought, the hardware store, (where he and Sora had gotten their wooden swords), grocery, and yup, there was the temple, Wakka hadn't moved it. A few more homes, but that was about it. Riku yawned again.

"Definetly need some sleep." Riku headed into the temple, and then headed into the back rooms, he found a comfortable couch, and dragged a blanket out of a nearby drawer. And promptly fell asleep.

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

a/n:Time for a dream sequence, and i think I'll try to a little more space between the long battles.


	5. Dreams

I do not own Kingdom Hearts, all characters belong to their respective owners.

A/n:I apologize in advance for the generic theme of this chapter, but cliches work.

**

* * *

Dreams**

"Sleeping well Riku?" an aged man in a blue robe said."Dreaming well too apparently. Who are you? Another memory of the past come to torment me about my acceptance of the darkness?"  
"Oh no no no, my boy. In part I am here to congratulate you on your rapid acceptance of the darkness. It does has its uses, as I am sure you have found out. As does the light mind you, so don't forget about it."  
"Sure thing gramps, you want to tell me who you are and finish your message? I would like to get some sleep."  
"You are getting plenty of sleep my boy, and as for me? I am Merlin, ask your friend Sora about me, I helped him a lot in mastering magic. I am here to tell you to get over to Traverse Town so I can talk to you face to face. Look for me in the third district, behind a door with the symbol of fire."  
"Why should I old man? I finally just got home and you are telling me to leave?"  
"What do you have here at your home Riku? Your parents are gone, your friends have grown up, and you have already beaten Sora, what else is there to do?  
"I..."  
"Its alright Riku, I just want you to come and visit, you don't have to stay very long. Indeed I do not anticipate you staying too much at all. There is great work that needs to be done, and you are pivotal in this.  
"How do you know all of this?"  
"I'll tell you when you get here, now finish sleeping."

* * *

A blitzball landed on Riku's head, not so softly either.  
"Wake up you. Its already afternoon, you are sleeping on my couch!"  
"Uh wha Wakka?"  
"Get up you lazy bag o bones. And get out of my couch ya. Do it in under 30 seconds and I'll buy you lunch."  
Riku sat up, threw the blanket in the air. He then used the darkness to fold it. He stood up, caught the blanket, and put it into the drawer.  
"24 seconds Wakka. Now wheres lunch?"  
Wakka blinked a few times. He and the others had been there during the fight, watching, but he didn't know Riku could use those powers outside of a fight. "Oh well, deals a deal." he thought.  
"OK. Time to take you for some real food, not cake ya."  
Riku's stomach growled. Grilled meat sounded real good right now.  
"Where can I get about a pound and a half of cow?" Riku asked.  
"Come on, I'll show you this new place, then again everything will be new to you ya? Best steak sandwich you've ever had"

* * *

"Thanks Wakka, I haven't eaten for days...well, you understand."  
Riku and Wakka were walking back from the eatery."Its ok bro, and no, I don't understand, but I don't think you can explain to me either ya? So, what are you going to do now?"  
"Leave."  
"Where you gonna go? Build another raft and see new worlds?"  
"Maybe the later, but not the former. I have a better method of transportation. Goodbye Wakka, tell the others. I don't know when I will be back. Just try not to age another 15 years while I'm gone ok?"  
With that, Riku stopped, and stuck out his hand. He pulled, and the dark vortex opened.  
"Goodbye...friends." 

a/n: I apologize again for this chapter's shortness, but I liked this ending, helps me out later.

REVIEW PLEASE, let me know that I am not shouting into the air.


	6. Damn Door

I do not own kingdom hearts, all characters belong to their respective owners.

**Stupid Door**

Riku found himself in front of the double doors of the first district. "Haven't been here in a while" he thought, and walked towards the third district. "Last time I was here, I had just found Maleficent, and she had shown me Sora's new friends. I was so jealous that I took every lie she told me. Bitch." Riku kicked a can. He took a look at his surroundings. The district had shrunk in the intervening time. The item shop had been torn down, and the restaurant had a CLOSED sign over it. "This place has really shut down. It makes sense though. So many people here were refugees from other stars, so when they went back, this town must have emptied out." Riku walked into the item shop. Hewy, Dewy, and Loui were all there (though about Donald's height, instead of 6 inches tall), this time Dewy was manning the counter. "What do you have for me boys?"

"Not much mister. Not much call for weapons and armor anymore. We still got a mega-ether."

"You remind me of someone. Now who was it?"

Hewy answered, "I saw you walking down the street, years ago, but I can't remember much more, but it was your silver hair that gave it away."

"I'll just take the mega-ether."

Loui asked, "Did you know Sora?"

"Yes."

"Take it, Sora was such a good person to us, if you know him, take it. We were planning to close anyway."

"Thanks guys, stick together ok?

"OK" all three replied.

Loui said as Riku left, "That was our last item, the rents due, and we are broke. What are we going to do?"

Neither Hewy nor Loui noticed that Dewy had disappeared.

Riku then moved into the third district, eager to meet "Merlin" and move on. He walked up to the door with the fire symbol on it. But it wouldn't open, no matter how hard he pushed. He tried tapping it, then full out hitting it with the keyblade, but that did nothing either.

"What the hell am I supposed to do? Stupid wizard... Wizard! He probably wants a magic demonstration." Riku pulled a dark force ball and threw it at the symbol. Besides the shaking of the door and the ground, nothing seemed to come of it. "I'll be he wants me to counter the spell of the door then." He used blizzaga, trying to counter the flame, but still, nothing. "This is pissing me off." He then used firaga, but that didn't do anything either. "Work Riku, breathe, relax, and think. Sora got to see him very early on, so it had to be a weak magic spell."

Riku pointed his index finger at the door, and cast fire. The door opened. "Damn door." Riku said, spitting on the symbol as he passed through.

Riku found himself in a large cave, with a house at the end on an island. He used the stepping stones to reach the house, and knocked on the door. Again, nothing happened. This time Riku walked around the house, see if there didn't seem to be another way, and there was a hole in the wall. "Convenient." Riku said, and walked in.

Merlin was there, sitting in a big easy chair on a platform in the middle of the room. Riku jumped up on the platform and took a seat in the opposing chair.

"Quite the place you have here Merlin." Riku said, taking note of the apparent disorder and chaos that was in the room. "I'm assuming you don't have a housekeeper."

"I've tried to hire one mind you, they all just faint or run away screaming when they came in." Merlin said with a laugh. "I had a fairy godmother for a time, but she never did anything but say 'bibidi bobidi boo'. Lazy wench."

"Merlin, lets skip the pleasantries. You called me here from across the stars and I came the next day, what the hell was so important?"

"Be quiet boy, you will mourn the loss of these so-called pleasantries soon enough. I have a lot to tell you. First, I have a question for you. What makes a person the strongest?"

"His friends. They work together to be strong."

"Close, but wrong. The strongest person is the person who can stand alone. Lets take your example. We will use Sora since that was who you were thinking of obviously. When it was you vs. Sora alone, you beat him. Rather easily in fact. But when he was with his friends, he beat you. Why? Because even though you were stronger, you were facing a team, and even if you separated them, you were still facing them together. Strength in numbers is very true, but the strongest is the one who does not need a friend, one who relies only on his own strength to accomplish his goals."

"Fine, so that means that I can be the strongest. Quick question before your sermon begins again, why the hell am I still 16, while Sora is thirty?"

"Didn't you take...no, you are too young for special relativity. ok, let me make this short and sweet. The faster you go, the slower time is. For example, time passes more slowly at the end of a sword than at the hilt, because it is moving so much faster. So, if you swing your sword at very fast speeds, the end will actually be behind the sword, and when you stop, it will catch up. This is called time dilation. Basically, Kingdom Hearts is the last piece of metal at the end of the sword. That world travels very fast through the void, so time passes very slowly for you, while time passes very quickly for everyone else. Thats why you are still 16, and Sora is thirty. Make sense?"

"No, but I'll just accept it. What else."

"Whether you believe it or not, everyone has a soulmate. Everyone has someone that they are destined for, though very few people are lucky enough to meet them. Most times, the two are scattered across different worlds, and unless the boundaries are broken, they cannot meet, so they settle for second or third best. Such is life. Except for you. You have a special destiny. You have no soulmate. You are destined to be alone. You are destined to be so alone in fact, that you will never have friends, and there won't even be a second or third place for you."

"What about my friends now? Sora, Riku, Kairi, Tidus, Wakka, Selphie?"

"They are still around yes, but you can never see them again, they live on Destiny Islands. Despite its name, those on Destiny Islands are devoid of destiny. They have complete and total free will, even when they leave the islands. Since you have a destiny, you can't go back there, in fact, going back there would be very dangerous. If you stayed too long, the whole island chain would collapse."

"But I was living there my whole life, why didn't it collapse then?"

"Because you were not the Riku with destiny then. You had no Destiny until you gained the darkness."

"I was just there, why didn't it..."

"How long were you there? 30, 40 hours? You can't expect an explosion of sufficient magnitude to occur in such a short amount of time. If you had spent a month or two, then we might be having another conversation entirely. But as it stands, the Destiny Islands are fine. However, we now have to delve further into your destiny. Your destiny is not just to be alone, and thus become strongest, but to also finish what Sora started."

"Sora finished what Sora started. All the keyholes are locked, when he locked Kingdom Hearts, all the destroyed world's keyhoes were all locked along with it."

"True, but that was just the beginning. What can you do with a lock, Riku?"

"You can lock it, and you can unlock it."

"Very good, so what is to stop the next keyblade master from unlocking the locked keyholes? Nothing. But you were only partially right. There is a third thing you can do with a lock."

Merlin conjured a lock, it hung suspended in midair. "You can lock and unlock a lock till you are blue in the face, it can still be changed. But"

Merlin took his wand and struck the lock. It bent and twisted, leaving it broken and deformed. "you can break a lock. You can break the keyholes of each world so that they can never again be locked or unlocked. What Sora did was a temporary solution. You are to enact a permanent solution. You are to break the keyholes, leaving them perpetually stuck in either a locked or unlocked state."

"That won't take too long. I'll just go to each world and break the lock. Then apparently, go to someplace and live out the rest of my lonely existence, probably the coliseum."

"If it was that easy, the fates wouldn't have created an entire destiny just so someone can hit a bunch of locks. You have to judge each world. In fact, you cannot even do anything to the keyhole, besides locking and unlocking, for at least a year."

"Fuck. You are telling me, that I have to spend a whole YEAR! On each STUPID WORLD. Great. I'll be 300 hundred before I'm even halfway done."

"Hardly that my boy, hardly that. Most of the stars areworlds that have absolutely nothing on them. You don't have to worry about those worlds. There are about twenty that you do have to worry about. However, there is another catch."

"Oh goody. I have to do it blindfolded with one hand behind my back and with duct tape over my mouth?"

"No. There must be balance. Half the worlds you break will have to be broken closed, half broken open."

"You are forcing me to condemn people to certain death from the heartless? Wait. I killed the last heartless. Sure, fine."

"Oh you did? Really. Well, my senses must be lying to me, because I caught this one just the other day" Merlin opened a box and inside was a shadow, its antennae waving about, inside a cage."Shit old man, don't scare me like that." Riku stuck out his hand.

#How many of you escaped?#

#From the Great Heart? About twenty master, maybe a few more.#

#IMPOSSIBLE, you lie to me creature.# Riku used the darkness to rend one of the shadows arms.

# I killed the last one, just at the great doors.#

#No, you killed many at the great doors. But there were many of us hiding in the shadows under your feet. And still others were on the other side of the door. Then there was the last great one. He hid himself in the fabric of the world.#

#But...it was white when I left.#

#Nearly white master, the great one spread himself very thinly across the world, making it impossible to tell if he was there.#

Riku was angry, very very angry. He wanted to see this trickster destroyed. He cast aero around the shadow, then he used the darkness to slowly contract the air around the shadow. It squeaked, and tried to escape, but there was no place to go. Riku kept shrinking the space, slowly squeezing the heartless.

#Master Help me! Please, Master!#

#Silence foul beast. You are to die#

With that, Riku squeezed the air so that not even one molecule could fit. He then released the spell, and the heartless exploded into a million pieces, which dissipated into mist as they flew to the walls of the cages.

"Apparently you still hold a violent streak." Merlin shrugged, "Such is life, though I must say that violence like that is not very helpful, it takes too long to kill, be efficient in your combat. Strip away the flash and flair. You have 20 some odd years ahead of you. Don't die too early because you were stylish when absolute brutality was needed. Lets see. Did I forget anything. Islands, woman, balance, break ummm oh yes. Kingdom Hearts. Don't bother trying to break kingdom hearts. It is to stay unbroken to keep the balance. Any questions?"

"Why me?"

"Damn, I was hoping to get away without you asking that question. Well, how many users of darkness do you know of?"

"Well, Hades, Maleficent, Ursula, just about everyone on that damn council."

"And everyone of them is dead. You are the only being who has mastery of the darkness and the only one who is not a slave to it. And that means you are the only one who can move between worlds to break their locks.

"How am I to know which stars are right? I don't want to waste anymore time than I have to.

"Look for the stars that don't twinkle."

"Now hold on, there are heartless on the loose, and you want me to aid their progress?

"If you do not do it, all of the worlds will be in jeopardy from a rogue keybearer! You are the only one who can do this! You alone are the one with the strength to be alone! _pant pant_ Oh, and don't forget about the seven princesses of heart. You need them to access hollow bastions keyhole.

"Enough! I'm leaving. If I stick around here anymore you'll put even worse catches on me. Goodbye old man, see you later." With that Riku stepped outside and left the cave. He stared into the sky, looking for a star that didn't twinkle. He found one, and stepped through the portal to it.

Merlin watched the boy leave. With a soft chuckle he turned to his home, "I've lingered too long in this dimension, time to move on to the afterlife.

Dewy watched as an old man with a blue robe collapsed. He tried to wake him up, but the old man wouldn't get up. In his hand he found a letter:

_To whoever finds me,_

_In my front right pocket is the deed to my house. Take care of it, for it is yours now._

Dewy went back to his brothers, as they hung the CLOSED sign over the item shop, "Guys, I found us a new home."

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>.

a/n: my god, I didn't know I had this much writing in me. Again, reviews are appreciated. And if anyone has any non-disney suggestions of worlds, email them to me. (i'm already using most of the disney worlds).


	7. Pride Rock

I do not own Kingdom Hearts, and all characters belong to their respective owners.

**Pride Rock**

Riku found himself on a very grassy world. For as far as the eye could see, there was only grass. However, there, in the distance was something. He couldn't quite make it out, but it had a distinctive shape. He decided to head off in that direction. As he approached, he was nearly trampled by a heard of antelope. But what really startled him was that the lead antelope had said to him, "Out of the way!"

"Well, if ducks can talk, why can't antelope, though those ducks at least looked like they could talk. Oh well, strangeness abounds." He continued off in the direction of the thing, which looked more and more like a rock formation. As he got closer however, he noticed less grass, and fewer animals were around. By the time he actually got to the rock, there was bare dirt beneath him. He suddenly jumped back as a lioness landed in front of him. "Who are you? What are you? Why have you come to Pride Rock?"

"I am Riku, a human. I have come to Pride Rock learn about this place."

"There is nothing here. Go back to where you came from."

"Wait. I have more questions."

"Ask them to the antelope" the lioness snorted, "or better yet, find a monkey." and with that the lioness walked off

"What is your name?"

"Nala."

"Thank you." Riku said to the retreating cat, "Stupid bitch didn't even tell me where to find a monkey." Riku began to explore more thoroughly Pride Rock, though he stayed hidden from the other lions and hyenas. He thought that he had heard strange noises coming from inside one of the caves. So he entered. Inside there was nothing. But wait. In the corner, he thought he saw something move. So quietly he sneaked over there. Inside was a blue bird, making an awful racket.

"If you don't keep it down bird, I'm gonna have to make you be quiet."

"What what what? Who is there. Who is speaking to Zazu?"

"Me." Riku said, walking from out of the shadows. "Who put you in that bone cage little bird, and why?"

"You, you are human! What is a human doing here? There hasn't been a human here in a long time. Since before my great grandfather's grandfather's grandfather's time."

"Well there is one here now. So, why are you in a cage?"

"I'm in a cage because the throne was usurped by that bastard Scar. Our king was killed and his brother, Scar, took the throne. He had allied with the hyenas and brought them along. However, now there is very little food left. Since I was the Royal courier, I was jailed. That answer your question? NOW GET ME OUT OF HERE."

"One more question first. Where can I find a monkey?"

"I'm assuming you mean Rafiki. He's around. Look north, try to find a big tree."

"Thanks now lets see about..." Riku stopped and hid himself in the shadows, as a lion walked in.

"Zazu, telling the wind to get you out will not make it happen. How are you doing, my fine feathered friend?"

"I'm not doing well, thanks to you, and I am most certainly not your friend. Don't you have some lands to look over, instead of pestering me? Mufasa always..."

"DO NOT mention his name ever again or I'll rip your beak off. Do I make myself clear?"

"C..C..Clear as a brook." Zazu said, with a slight tremor.

"I think I'm going to go take a nap. However, there is something...odd here. I'm afraid Zazu, that I will have to bear your company through my sleep. And do not wake me up. It would be very bad for you lifespan." With that, scar lay down, and in a few minutes was asleep.

"Damn" Zazu whispered. "There goes my best chance. If you try to move these bones, they will scrape on the stone, and that will wake him up."

"Oh well. Better luck later maybe. Thanks for the info." Riku whispered, walking out.

"North huh? Lets see, if the sun is setting, and its that direction, then I should go this way." Riku started off on a jaunt north, carefully avoided any lions or hyenas. Before he could discern any tree however, it became dark.

"Time to stop and make a camp." Riku thought. "Well, I do have to say, things aren't going so well for those on Pride Rock. Maybe this Rafiki guy will tell me more. I still have 364 days to go, and apparently there are no humans here." Riku's stomach grumbled. "Now what am I going to eat?" As if to answer his query, a rabbit hopped past him. Riku quietly stood up, and followed it. The rabbit stopped to munch on some roots, and Riku stopped to aim his strike. Riku lunged, and the rabbit's head was caught between the teeth of the keyblade. He took the rabbit off the keyblade, and broke its neck. "Next world I'm gonna find some cooking utensils. Riku tried skinning the hare with his keyblade, but it was too long. So, he sat down, and tore the skin right off the bones and meat with his hands. (luckily he had taken off his gloves.) and began to eat the rabbit raw. "Definetly an acquired taste" he thought, as he struggled to swallow down the meal. Finishing the meat, he placed all the bones in a pile and cleared a section of grass. He then used the grass (and a well placed fire spell) to get enough heat to crack the bones. He scooped out the marrow and ate that too, but was still a bit hungry. "Going to bed hungry. Something tells me that I'm going to be doing a lot of that here." He lay down on his back, and went to sleep.

* * *

"Lets eat him." one hyena said. 

"Lets knock him out, boil him, THEN eat him." the other replied.

"Lets talk a little louder so I know where you guys are." Riku said, and threw Betrayal in the direction of the voices. He was rewarded with a scream, and then moans of pain. Riku picked himself and walked over to examine his catch. One of the hyena's legs was lying a foot away from the rest of the body, and the other hyena had apparently fled the scene.

"So, why did you talk of eating me?" Riku said, stepping on the stump of the wounded Hyena.

"AHHHHH. Ah get off stop pain oww." Riku removed his foot. "You were alone, and no weapon, asleep. Good chance for food."

"Well, its too bad you picked the wrong mammal to mess with. Unless you have some information that would prove useful to me, in which case I might heal that wound over, but you can forget about getting that leg back, thats my breakfast." The hyena whimpered, "What do you want to know? And uh, can you at least stop the blood flow?"  
Riku sighed and held up his hand. He cast a very very weak cure spell. The blood stopped flowing freely, but it was still dripping out of the wound. "Tell me about Pride Rock and the surrounding lands."

"Well uhh, Pride Rock is ruled by Scar, but there isn't much food. Over there," The hyena pointed his nose to the north, "is where this monkey Rafiki, lives. He doesn't like us hyenas much, he liked the old king better than Scar."

"The old king. Tell me about him."

"Well, umm not much to tell. His name was...ummm," Riku stepped on the wound again, "Ahhh it it was it was umm Mufasa yeah yeah Mufasa." Riku stepped off the wound. "Mufasa ruled just about everywhere, except the elephant graveyard, that was Scar's and the ours, the Hyena's, territory. But then Mufasa died, and Scar, as his half brother stepped in. Normally, Mufasa's son, Simba, would have taken over, but hehe we Hyenas ran him out. Or so I heard."

"Where did he go?"

"To the jungle I think. Its ummm..way west of Pride Rock. Very far away. Takes a month just to get there."

"Very good, anything else you care to tell me?"

"Ummm...uh..Rafiki is dangerous. And um... can I have my leg back?"

"I wasn't kidding when I said it was my breakfast, though I will heal your wound, on two conditions. First I want your name."

"Its Tug."

"Ok Tug, the second condition is that you tell no one that you ever met me, and that your leg got taken by Rafiki. Understood?"

"Su Sure. Can you heal me now pleaseeeee?"

Riku cast a full strength cure on Tug. The wound closed up and skin grew over the wound.

"Quick question Tug, have you ever seen anything that looks like a keyhole?"

"Whats a keyhole?"

"Nevermind. Goodbye Tug." Riku said with a smile.

"Goodbye jackass."

Riku picked up his new breakfast, and, again removed the skin and fur. He then held it over the keyblade while casting a fire spell, but instead of letting the fireball fly away, he held it on the top of the blade, using it as kind of a grill. Eventually Riku figured that the meat was done, and headed off towards the north, munching his breakfast as he went.

* * *

Rafiki watched Riku approach from the top of his tree. "A human, he could be a hunter. Well, guess its time to break out the old skills." The monkey cracked his neck and hands, and retrieved his stick.

* * *

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> 

Fight ahead. Man vs. Monkey. Place your bets. Maybe.

Also, just in case we have people who have not seen it, we are now in the land of Lion King.

And yes, torture and carnivorism is now explicitly detailed (you didn't think I'd leave out the juicy bits did you? This is M rated for a reason.)


	8. Riku, Monkey, Nudity

I do not own Kingdom Hearts, and all characters belong to their respective owners.

**

* * *

Riku, Monkey, Nudity**

Riku looked at the huge tree that loomed in front of him. It was easily the biggest he had ever seen. There was no telling how tall it was, but the circumference was at least a quarter, maybe half a mile. Riku walked toward the base, scanning the upper branches for any sign of the monkey. Then, he found the monkey. Or, to be more accurate, he found the monkey falling on him with a giant stick. "Here we go again," Riku thought, and just before the staff would strike him, he sidestepped, then brought Betrayal down upon the stick, snapping it in half. Riku then pointed the keyblade at the monkey's face.

"Metal beats wood any day of the week.. Mind telling me why I shouldn't paint the tree red?" The monkey jumped back quickly, "Why are you here human? You do not belong here, go back to where you came from."  
"Not happening any time soon. I am stuck here for a year." Riku paused for a second, realizing how long a year would be. "Are you Rafiki, by any chance?"

"I am. Who sent you to me?" The monkeys eyes flashed dangerously and he leveled what remained of his stick at Riku. "Do you serve Scar and the Hyenas?"

"Nala sent me, and in regards to your second question, I had Hyena for breakfast. Literally."

"Hmph. Carnivores. Well, if miss Nala sent you, then I guess I'd better take you in and give you something better to eat than Hyena." Rafiki scampered up the trunk.

"Wait for me, you stupid monkey." Riku shouted, and deciding that he needed four hands and a tail to climb the trunk, he settled on jumping to the lowest branch, about 15 feet in the air. Riku easily landed on the branch, and then used his jumping skills to keep up with Rafiki.

* * *

Eventually they reached Rafiki's home, a good 200 feet in the air. Between the odd containers and stashes of fruit, Riku noticed an odd picture, seemingly drawn in colored dirt, of a lion with a big red mane. Riku picked up a fruit and began munching. 

"Who is the lion?"

"Ahh, this is Simba. We thought him dead, but I caught his scent on the night breeze. He is far to the west."

"Yeah, a Hyena told me as much."

"I thought you didn't work for the Hyenas."

"I don't. I was interrogating."

"Oh. Well since Simba is alive, its time he was reinstated as king don't you think?"

"What do I care? But seeing as how there really isn't anything else for me to do. Why not. So what do you want me to do?"

"Ahh good good good. I had planned to send Nala, but truthfully, they would fall so far in love with each other I had very little faith in her coming back at all. So, I'm going to send you to the jungle to get him and bring him back."

"Thats an awful lot to ask for me, a bored human to do. There is no incentive for me."

"Ahh but there is young keyblade master."

The monkey smiled as Riku's face registered shock.

"The last human who was here also carried a keyblade, and he too came seeking the keyhole. However, he unlocked it. I do not think you will repeat your predecessor's actions. If you do this for me, I will reveal to you the location of the keyhole."  
"Done, but I need things. Supplies and such."

"Yes, Yes. Of course. I will have everything ready for you by tomorrow. Why don't you take a bath in the meantime. You could use it." Rafiki pointed to branch leading away.

"Sure sure." Riku said and walking along the branch came to a pool of water. How such a thing was possible didn't matter to Riku. He stripped off his clothes and threw them in. He quickly followed, using his shirt to scrub all the dirt and sweat that had accumulated on him since he had left the islands off. He then scrubbed his clothes, trying to get the dirt off of them, partially succeeding. Then Riku remembered his hair. He dunked himself in the water and viciously scrubbed his hair, but to no avail. When he came back up, it was still oily. "Well, this will probably be the last time in a while that I'm going to be able to bathe, so its no big deal. However, I'm definetly making a pit stop in Traverse town for some soap before I hit the next world." Riku got out of the pool and left his clothes to dry on a nearby branch.

"When in Rome..."

"Yo Rafiki! Whats for dinner?"

"Find some fruit." The monkey replied, working intently on something on a higher branch.

"Herbivores, damn it I hate rabbit food."

The fruit was fresh at least, though it did leave Riku with a craving for something meaty. Riku found a comfy spot on a mossy branch, then fell asleep.

"That boy must be tired. The sun is just starting to set. He will have to wake up at sunrise anyway."

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

A/N: I lied, sorry. I made the fight scene anti-climactic. A real one should come up...um...later.


	9. Travel by Night

I do not own Kingdom Hearts. All characters belong to their respective owners.

**

* * *

Travel by Night**

As the sun rose on Rafiki's tree, Riku drowsily woke up. He walked to his clothes and put them on. He took a fruit and started munching.

"Sleep well boy?"

"Yeah. So, what do you have for me?"

"Got you some water bottles, already filled them. Save it for the desert though. There are plenty of streams to drink from in the grasslands. Here's a sack of fruit. Should keep you full till you get there. What else what else. Ahh yes, here." Rafiki threw him a wooden sword.

"Whats this for? Starting a campfire?"

"You don't need that metal blade here, unless you plan to kill. Keep it around, just in case."

"Anything else?"

"No, though Nala sends her regards, and told me to tell you, 'If Simba dies before I see him, I'm gonna bite your fucking head off.' Quite a crass for a lady."

"Goodbye Rafiki, and may a fruit fall on you and send you tumbling to the ground."

"Insolent brat!"

Riku had thought of taking a running leap off the western edge of the tree, and then using an aero spell to slow his descent. However, since that would be the first time he had ever tired such a maneuver, he decided instead to jump down the tree branches, and hit the ground in a kneeling position. He dusted himself off, and took off at a steady pace, heading west.

He didn't run into anymore animals, which was good for them as Riku was really craving some meat. Soon, the grass began to thin, and there was more distance between streams. Finally he found himself in the desert. "What was the advice dad gave me? Oh yeah, 'travel by night.' Though i better wake up before sunset, then run towards the setting sun, otherwise I'll be running around in circles. So Riku sat down and rested. He had traveled for a week, and his fruit supply was running low. Hopefully a coyote or some other animal would cross his path. He could go for some meat.

"I'm glad I'm alone." Riku thought, "The silence is comforting. And I don't have to worry about anyone other than myself. I don't feel bad about losing my friends, and I think I understand what Merlin meant when he said I have no other friends. Rafiki isn't my friend, neither is Nala or Zazu or the duck brothers. Hell even Merlin isn't my friend, he was more of a prophet than anything else. Before I had Ansem to keep me company, but now, this is my true loneliness. And it doesn't make me feel sad at all. Lonely strength indeed."

As the sun began to set, Rik ran into the setting sun, mentally adding sunglasses to his shopping list. He ran through the night, finishing up one of the water bottles, which he tossed behind him. Eventually, he felt the rising sun on his back. He slowed down, trying to find a rock or some other shelter, finally coming across a rather large rock that had enough of a overhang to suit his purpose. He ate another two fruits and fell asleep.

* * *

The sun was again setting, this was his fourth day of traveling in the desert, and his last fruit had just been finished for breakfast. "Damn lying monkey. Not enough food." He trudged out again hoping to either find the jungle or some food. 

The sun started to rise, and he had found neither.

Riku's stomach growled, but there was nothing to do for it. He went to bed hungry again.

* * *

The sun began to set, and Riku trudged off, through his stomach protested vigorously. Just before it completely set, he though he saw something, but it was too dark to tell for sure. Riku set out again, hoping to catch up to whatever it was. Suddenly he heard a howl. He stopped dead in his tracks, trying to determine where the howl came from. The creature howled again, and Riku sprinted in the direction. Quickly he came upon a coyote just about to howl a third time. Riku quickly decapitated it, and took the bowl Rafiki had given him, along with the water from a water bottle, and quickly made coyote stew. To heat it, he broke a piece of rock off the one the coyote had been standing on, heated it until it started turning red, then he dropped it in the stew, and stirred quickly with his wooden sword until the rock had cooled. He ate a lot of the stew. He poured the remaining liquid back into the water bottle and left the meat chunks in the bowl, carrying it as he ran east. Occasionally he would eat a chunk and drink a bit of the the broth, and by the time the sun rose, there was no meat left and the broth was almost gone. He downed the broth. He then curled up and prepared to sleep when a strange thought struck him. "Why am I being so savage? So animalistic? Is the world itself affecting me? Possibly, but other worlds haven't had that same ability to change me. On other worlds there was civilization, enough so that I could buy my food. However, here there is no market, its kill or be killed. And these are only animals after all, even if they do talk."

* * *

As the sun began to set, Riku ran towards the fading light. He saw leaves, huge leaves, swaying in the breeze ahead of him. Towards early morning he saw trunks and dense vegetation. Unlike the transition from grassland to desert, the one from jungle to desert was abrupt. Riku decided to spend his last night out in the desert, preferring the open space to the dense jungle. 

"Hey Timon, whats that...creature over there?"  
"I don't know Pumpa, and I don't care. It's almost noon, lets find some grub."


	10. Lions and Warthogs and Meercats O My

I do not own Kingdom Hearts, and all characters belong to their respective owners.

**

* * *

Lions and Warthogs and Meercats O m...who cares?**

When Riku woke up, the sun was high in the sky. "Good." he thought, " I'll be back to normal sleeping patterns soon. Now to find this Simba lion." His stomach rumbled, "and some food would be nice." Riku stepped into the jungle, and was assaulted by the humidity. He took off his gloves, as well as rolling up his pants. Riku thought of using his keyblade to clear away the brush, but decided against it, preferring to move with stealth. As he wandered, he heard strange noises, slurps and crunches. He followed them, coming upon a meercat and a warthog enjoying a meal of bugs. "Hope that doesn't affect the flavor." Riku thought and started to swing the keyblade when he was sent crashing forward as something heavy hit his back. Riku rolled and flipped upright, turning to face this new enemy, a lion. A big lion, which reminded him of Rafiki's drawing. Riku pointed his keyblade at the lion with his left hand, while using his right to pull free the wooden sword. The lion was just about to pounce, when Riku spoke.

"Stop. You are Simba correct?"

"I am, and how dare you strike my friends! I'll kill you!"

"No you wont. Rafiki sent me, its time for you to return to Pride Rock."

"I will not return. I did such terrible things, I can't go back. I won't."

Damn, this was not how it was supposed to go. OK time, time for plan B.

"Scar has taken over. He and the hyenas have caused the herds to leave. Return and make things right." Riku said, "That usually gets the good guys." He thought.

"Let Pride Rock burn."

Shit. Time for plan C.

"Nala is there. She wants you, bad. Come with me, I will take you to her."

"Nala..." A look of peace flashed over Simba's face, then returned to sadness. "No, not even for her, I cannot go back."

Riku sighed. If the first two plans had worked, he could have ridden Simba all the way out of the desert. Oh well, something just have to be done the hard way. Riku smiled. He liked doing things the hard way. He pointed the wooden blade at the lion, and unsummoned the keyblade. "I'm going to fight you, and I'm going to win. You can either give up and give me a ride to the grasslands, or I can beat you up, then you can give me a ride, OR I can beat you up, tie you up, and drag you to Pride Rock. And if its the last, I'll need a little nourishment." Riku glanced menacingly at Timon and Pumba, who then screamed and grabbed each other in fear. "So, what will it be?"

"Why do you do this ape? This doesn't affect you and your damn species. Now go climb a tree and leave us be."

"My reasons are my own. And since you don't want to be pleasant, I'm assuming you want to do things the hard way."

Simba roared, and lept at Riku, using both claws and his teeth in a combined strike. Riku dodged left, but still had to deflect Simba's right claw. Simba landed, then swung his left claw around, hoping to catch the boys at the knees. Riku did a short hop, and brought a strong blow upon Simba's head with the wooden sword, but was surprised when Simba grabbed it mid-swing in his mouth. Riku gave a quick, "Oh shit!" before releasing the blade. Simba crunched, and the sword broke in half. "This could be interesting" Riku thought, bringing his hands up. Simba lunged again, and Riku sidestepped the first claw, grabbed the second with his left hand, and summoned a force-ball to hit Simba in the face. The lion was sent flying backwards. Riku ran after Simba's body, and proceeded to kick the lion in the ribs. Simba lashed out with his claws, shredding one of Riku's over sized shoes. "I liked that shoe!" Riku said and began a magical onslaught on the downed lion. First a fira spell was cast to burn the skin, then a blizzara spell to make his bruised ribs ache. Then an aeroga spell sent Simba flying into the air and was shocked by a thunder spell. Finally a gravity spell sent the lion crashing into the ground. Riku kicked the lion with each word, "Don't. Touch. My. Weapons. And. Clothes. Ever. Again." Simba coughed blood and tried to stand up, only to collapse.

"You win, hairless ape, but it will never go back." Riku kicked Simba in the gut, and with a cry the lion passed out.

"Pumba, what the HELL just happened?" The warthog and meercat had run away after Simba was thrown in the air, and were watching from under a fallen log.

"I don't know Timon, but I'm hoping that when the kid wakes up, he will go. I don't think being grilled by that fire will be beneficial to my skin."

"Pumba...I hope you are right."

* * *

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> 

A/N: Well, thats sorta the battle for this world. Thoug he will have a nice long fight with heartless. Maybe.


	11. Falling Stars, Cooking with Timon ect

I do not own Kingdom Hearts, and all characters belong to their respective owners.

**

* * *

Falling Stars, a Trip to the Harem, and Cooking with Timon**

Riku turned towards the meercat and warthog. He could hear their voices quite easily, and jumped into the trees. From there he jumped from branch to branch until he was right behind them. He landed just behind them, and poked Pumba's fat ass with his keyblade.

"Hey dinner."

"GAAAAAAAAAAAAH!" Tim on screamed, "Don't eat us, O great ape!"

Timon proceeded to bow incessantly, and after a little nudging, Pumba followed. "We are here to serve. Just don't roast, bake, boil, braise, grill, steam, broil, or fry us."

Riku thought for a moment, "I wonder if...yes, yes that will work splendidly, I hope."

Riku then turned his keyblade teeth up and whacked Pumba on the top of the head. The warthog fell unconscious immediately. Riku hoisted the pig over his shoulder, and started walking to Simba.

"Where are you going with him? What are you doing?"

"You know how to cook. I figured as much seeing as how you know all those cooking techniques. Meet me at Pride Rock in the next month. Otherwise I'm going to sear Pumba. Alive." He then picked up Simba, and sunk through a portal in the ground.

"Fuck shit shit damn damn damn. WHERE THE FUCKING HELL IS PRIDE ROCK? Fucking apes. Gaaaaaah!" He said, throwing his hands in the air.

* * *

Riku reappeared at the base of Rafiki's tree. 

"Intra-planetary travel. Didn't think it would work. But like hell I was going to drag a lion across the desert on a few water bottles. He cast curaga spell on Simba, and finding his magic reserves completely gone, drank the mega ether. He jumped into the tree and pulled down a few vines, and then tied them together. He jumped to the lowest branch and tied one end to it. He then attached the other end to Pumba, and dumped the water bottles on both lion and warthog, waking both. He then gave a piercing whistle, and pointed his keyblade at Simba's waking form. Rafiki appeared quickly, trying to determine what had made such a high pitched noise.

"Ahhh, the keyblade master has returned. And with Simba no less. Good good. The keyhole is at the very top of Pride Rock. I would like you to accompany Simba to reclaim Pride Rock...Strange, why are there falling lights?"

The stars seemed to have fallen. Indeed a huge spectacle of shooting stars covered the sky, then disappeared beyond the horizon, in the direction of Pride Rock

"Shit. OK, I'm going with you Simba, what are we doing again monkey?"

"You are going to overthrow Scar."

"Done. Simba, there are creatures. You will not recognize them. They are black with glowing eyes. Kill them, the lionesses will not be able to kill them all, now hurry."

"Nala is in danger." Simba replied with fear, and sped off in the direction of Pride Rock.

Riku shook his head.

"In a month or so, a meercat will come to pick up his friend," Riku jabbed his thumb at the waking warthog. "Tell him I want a recipe book before he can have his friend back. I will not be back for some time."

Riku then stepped through a portal that materialized behind him.

_At Pride Rock_

Riku stepped through the portal to find that there were no heartless. However, he had appeared in the lionesses' cave, and they were sleeping quietly. All except one, who was staring right at him. She growled, and all the other cats were now staring at Riku.

"Shit." Riku thought, though what he said was, "Um... good afternoon ladies?"

"Scar wanted food right? I think this ape qualifies."

"Fuck." Riku thought, which translated into words as, "Wait, Scar won't be King for much longer. Simba is coming back. I am here to...uh, announce his arrival."

"Really?" an inquisitive voice asked, "Simba is coming back? He's alive? Then that monkey was right!" Nala said, twirling around.

"Hmmmm." Sarabi said, "I don't want to trust you, but you have Nala's approval, so it'll let you live. However, stay stealthy, I don't know how you got in here, but keep it up and you should live past the Hyenas."

"Thank you, and good luck to you in the coming fight."

Riku left the cave and climbed the top of the mountain to find the keyhole, barely a faint outline on the small flat peak. Riku surveyed the landscape, and from the north he saw the dust cloud that he assumed was Simba, running at a breakneck speed. At the base of the rock, he could see hundreds of Hyenas sleeping. Riku's stomach rumbled, portal making is a hungry business. So, he climbed down the mountain, killed and skinned a hyena, (being careful to dispose of the corpse downwind), and went back to his perch on the peak and though (while eating), "I wonder why the heartless are here. Wait a minute. The heartless aren't here. Only the barrier fell. Though why would it do that unless the heartless attacked the barrier?"

The sounds of the battle below finally catching his ear, Riku looked down. The twisted bodies of the Hyenas were strewn everywhere.

"I killed Mufasa!" Scar screamed.

Riku yawned, the death screams were fewer and longer apart now. He head the distinct clicking of claws on rock and turned to face Sarabi, Simba's mother.

"My son has returned ape, and for that and your honesty I thank you, however, he mentioned a strange creature with glowing..." a lone shadow had formed in the lionesses own, and had struck her heart.

#Took you long enough# Riku said, and stretched out his hand and held the shadow in the air.

#Stay.# Riku replaced his stuck out right hand for his left, and summoned the keyblade..

#Where's the rest of your kind?#

#Just me.# The shadow proudly stated. #I detected portal opening on this world, so I attacked, and planned to destroy all life on this world, and absorb it into myself, becoming a great one.#

Even heartless have egos apparently.

#But the keyhole is locked. Why would you come?#

#I cannot have the great heart, but I can have all the little hearts, thats how we work now.#

#What would happen to any heartless on this world if the keyhole was unlocked?#

#This rock would turn black. Every heartless would come very quickly, and more form the great space, but slower.#

#But it is just you for now right?#

#Yes.#

Riku extended the keyblade so that it pointed right at the torso of the heartless, and slowly brought it closer and closer, finally impaling it on Betrayal. But Riku continued dragging the heartless up the length of the blade, until he was face to face with its squirming mass. "Thera." Riku didn't wait until all the light was removed, only a little was needed. "Sampta." Riku said with malice, as the small burst of light disintegrated the heartless. Riku then climbed down the mountain to see Simba and tell him his plan. He almost wished he hadn't, as Simba had just finished killing Scar's cubs, and was about to start "servicing" his pride, starting with Nala.

"Ahem. Simba, that will have to wait until later. You need to lave pride Rock now. Those dark creatures, called Heartless, will be coming, and I'm going to draw them to me and away from the herds. Now go, before I have to do a repeat performance, this time with a metal blade. Come back in 11 months. GO!"

Simba roared, and as one the lionesses moved south.

"Help me, someone he..e..e..elp me. Sob" A high pitched, hoarse voice cried. Riku sighed and followed the voice to a cave. There was Zazu, shaking his cage and crying into his wing.

"Whats up bird beak?"

"Oh, its you, human. Please, get me out of here."

"One condition. You are to tell every bird that you know to be on the lookout for one of these."

Riku, using the darkness, conjured an image of a shadow and rotated it around so Zazu could see.

"If you, or whoever, finds one, they are to come back to me at Pride Rock with the utmost speed. Have them call out for the...Deathlord, yes Deathlord."

"Done. NOW GET ME OUT!"

Riku lifted up the cage and Zazu sped out of the cave at full speed. Riku was about to explore the mountain when a loud "GAAAAAAAH!" caught his attention.

"My chef is here early."

Riku walked down the rock till he came across the meercat, who had a huge backpack full of something fragrant.

"Strangely, none of these kills are mine. However, I would like to make the most of their...contribution." Riku said, gesturing to the dead Hyenas.

"You sure they are all dead?"

"Nope." Riku smiled, "Don't worry though, stick close to me and you shouldn't fear any of them."

"Right um. Well. I think curing and smoking would be a good idea. Lots of meat needs to be preserved. You should gather all those corpses into a pile, skin and gut them, and I'll go get salt and wood."

They both went to their tasks, Riku throwing the skins into a big pile. "Probably make a good bed and blanket out of them." He threw the guts in another pile, downwind, far away from the other two piles. After he finished, Timon wandered up with a bag of salt, and pointed to a large pile of wood.

"Timon how did you find all that stuff and carry it all. How did you even get here so fast?"

"Trade Secret. But enough of that. The meat has to be coated with the salt," He reached into his spice bag and pulled out a large bag of powder, "Put a pinch of this on each animal. Its a mix of garlic and ginger and pepper. Get to work, AND DONT FORGET TO DEBONE THE MEAT."

Riku refrained form laughing at their switched positions, and started curing the meat.

* * *

Riku rubbed his hands in the stream, trying to get the salty blood off. 

"Riku! Get over here and start this fire."

Riku trudged over and pointed his palm at the wood "Fira." The pile burst into flame.

"Not that hot!"

Riku sighed and cast weakened blizzard spells until Timon told him to stop.

"Now, see how the wood is just smoking? Thats what we want. Now put the meat on a rack over the smoke...You wouldn't happen to have a rack would you?"

"No, but you want them over the fire right?"

"Yes. Hey, also, if you could make it so that the smoke and the meat are in a sort of box, that would be great."

Riku ran through the list of elements. He could use blizzaga to make an ice box, but that wouldn't help cook the meat, and it would probably douse the fire. He could levitate the meat with aero or gravity, but that would take a lot of magic. All that was left was earth, and he hadn't even cast one of these types of spells before, as they were not useful in battle. First time for everything. "Earth." Stones started piling on top of stones, until a square of stones surrounded the fire. Riku cast it again and created four long stone poles, which he placed over the top of the smoker. Riku then used Aero to lift a third of the carcasses and laid them out evenly on the rack.

"Good, now there are two more batches. Get to work."

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

What a long chapter, sorry. And furthermore, i do not take any rsponsibility for the deaths that may occur for those who should repeat this recipe. Do so at your own risk. (And email me how it went.)


	12. They Came for the Keyhole

I do not own Kingdom Hearts, and all characters belong to their respective owners.

**

* * *

They Came for the Keyhole**

It had been a long ten months since Simba had left. There was still no sign of heartless. The jerky that Timon had helped him make had lasted a long time. He still had another five Hyenas to cut and eat. Timon had left after about a week, leaving Riku alone on the mountain.

He had practiced 'Air Diving' as he called it. He would run off he high cliff and just before he hit the ground, he would cast an aero that compressed th air in front of him, giving him a sort of cushion of air. He had also perfected the earth spell, now he was able to cast eartha, which allowed him to create bigger and stronger stone, which he had used to create a wide platform at the peak for Pride rock. It had been his birthday present to himself, he was now 17. He built it so that he could better defend the keyhole. Now, so close to the end of his year, Riku was thinking about which way to break the keyhole: open, or closed.

"If I kept it closed, this word, brutal though it is, would be saved. Even though the savagery pervades into its visitors, there is no waste here. There is no killing just to kill, the only violence is for survival. If I opened it, soon they would all die, they only have teeth and claws to destroy the heartless. They don't stand a chance. I am to give them the chance to survive."

That decided, Riku went into his cave and sliced himself some Jerky.

"Deathlord. (Is that how you pronounce it?) DEATHLORD! Are you here?"

Riku looked at his lunch, he then cut a few more slices, ands stuffed them into his rapidly degrading pockets. He had already discarded his ruined shoes and walked barefoot. When he went outside, there was a red bird, flying around.

"I am here."

"Sir, it is terrible. These things, heartless, are attacking every animal."

"That is what I'm here for. Go home."

The bird took off, and Riku hiked up the mountain to the keyhole, he pointed the keyblade at it, like he had seen Sora do, but nothing happened, Riku tried tapping the keyhole with the keyblade, but still nothing. Frustrated, Riku slammed the keyblade into the keyhole. It sunk in very deep, all the way to the handle. Smiling at his luck, Riku grabbed the handle guards and twisted, turning the key. With a brief flash of light, the keyhole was once again a hole. And like a siren calls to men, so too does the keyhole call to the heartless. It wasn't a few minutes before the heartless showed up. "Finally, something that won't get my sword dirty." Riku said, and began to attack the heartless. He stabbed one through it's face, then did a full circle sweep with his sword at leg height, but jumped before he started, so that it turned into a mass decapitation. The remaining shadow was frozen by a blizzard spell. However, soldiers and large bodies started to show up. A thundra spell zapped the soldiers around him, and he teleported behind the large body, using his teleporation strike technique (without the useless beginning sword slash) and stabbed backward into the large body. Riku jumped and Betrayal ripped through the heartless'es body, destroying it. Riku jumped on top of the next large body and plunged the keyblade into the creature's head. A quick twist and all that remained was mist. The final large body was taken care of a by a firaga spell. Riku looked around, but there were no more heartless. "This was everyone on this world. The next wave will come from space, but it should take them a while to get here. Time for dinner." Riku pulled out the jerky and munched as he walked to his cave.

* * *

_One year after Riku's arrival_

"This is bad." Riku thought. The whole of Pride Rock was covered in darkness as the heartless marched up the slope. Riku had run out of magic long ago, so now he only had Betrayal to kill the heartless with. He jumped over a large body, stabbing at the base of its neck. It dissolved and three shadows took its place.

"Very bad day." Riku said, slashing through anything that moved. "I wish I knew when I could break the keyhole. Suddenly the keyhole began to glow. Riku pointed the keyblade at the keyhole, and a thin stream of light connected them. Then, with an audible click, the keyhole closed. However, the keyblade of its own force dragged Riku to the keyhole, there, the keyblade lifted itself up, and smashed down upon the keyhole, breaking it in two, forever closed. Bright light erupted from the broken keyhole, and it cascaded down down the mountain, destroying all heartless in its path. After a few minutes all was quiet, and Riku passed out.

* * *

Riku woke with a start, and looked south. There, Simba and his pride approached Pride Rock. 

"Time for me to leave." Riku thought, stepping through a portal to Rafiki's place. There in the tree trunk was a bunch of papers. Riku leafed through them and discovered it was Timon's recipe book.

Riku sighed and stepped through a portal.  
To the south, a loud din was heard, as a lion cub was raised to the sky.

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

A/N: Riku's magic functions differently than Sora's . Riku's magic recovers by sleep alone, and his injuries just like any normal human and through cure magic. And no, I don't know how I'm going to incorporate munney into this.


	13. Sleeping War

I do not own Kingdom Hearts, and all characters belong to their respective owners.

**No Cash? NO SERVICE!**

Riku appeared back in Traverse Town, in the first district. He walked up to the item shop, but found a closed sign over it as well. Riku sighed and noticed that his feet were getting cold standing on the stone. So, he walked over to the second district, and went into the clothier's store, right next to the closed Mad Hatter's store. He picked out a pair of close fitting boots as well as a pair of better fitting pants. He walked up to the register and handed the items to the cashier.  
"150 munny."

Riku blinked. Then blinked again. Then smacked himself with his hand.  
"Nevermind." Riku then walked out of the store smacking his hand against his face.

"Stupid. Stupid. Stupid. Munny. YOU NEED MUNNY TO BUY THINGS. Gahh!" Riku walked along the district, trying to figure out what to do.

"Well, can't make any munny here. No one has any. Time to go to the next world... unnnhhh I wanted the soap and sunglasses too."

Riku again scanned the sky, looking for promising stars. He found one, a bright white one, and created a portal to it.

* * *

Riku found himself outside of a huge castle, in a field of wheat. Nearby was a small home, with a chimney softly leaking smoking. Riku walked up to the door, and knocked on it. A young man, not much older than Riku answered. 

"Hello? BANDIT!"

"Hey pal, slow down. I'm no bandit."

"HELP! HELP! BANDIT! THERES A BANDIT!"

Riku sighed. This is just not his day. He backed up from the hysterical man and proceeded to walk towards the castle. Quite quickly however, he was stopped by a squad of armor plated men.

"Halt and go no further fiend. You are most assuredly the bandit, and we will take your life for coming here."

Very bad day. "I will give you one chance to leave me alone and live. Otherwise I will melt your armor and freeze it to your skin. Then I will take your heads and use them to decorate my kitchen." The threat fell on deaf ears.

"You will die fiend. Any last words before we send you to your final rest?"

"One question. Whose your leader?"

A man with a large crest emblazoned on his armor and shield stepped forward. "I am the leader of the 5th squadron of the 8th legion of His majesty's army."

"I challenge you to single combat. To make it fair, I have not slept for 3 days because I was battling creatures of darkness, and i have no shoes. If I win, I am not a bandit. If I lose, then hell will freeze over."

"I accept your challenge, and if you defeat me, you shall have a place in this squadron. Now defend yourself!"

The knight swung his longsword at Riku. Riku jumped high into the air, then brought the blade crashing down on the man's skull, slicing through, and continued until he had split the man in two. He was then soaked in the commander's blood.

"Commander!" Some of the men screamed. Others stepped back in complete shock. One second the boy had been standing there, doing nothing, the next he was gone, and the next he had split the commander in half.  
"Who, what.. are you?"

"I am a Deathlord. My magic is unstoppable, my blade is undefeated." (Riku rationalized that it was Ansem fighting Sora when he was defeated, not himself.) Riku held out his left hand and conjured a purple flame to emphasize. "I do not wish to fight, I only wish for a clean bed and a warm meal."

"Sir," one of the men said, he had a smaller emblem emblazoned on his shield and armor. "I am, was, second in command. I would be honored if you would join our squadron."

"Whats for dinner?" Riku said with disinterest.

"Uh, I think our cook was making lamb."

"Deal."

* * *

He bathed himself with soap, "God bless civilization." Riku thought. He then put on the uniform that he was expected to wear. White linen shirt and pants, with a heavy set of chain mail and then plate mail on top of that. Riku looked himself over in the mirror and abandoned that idea. He took off the plate, but left the chain on. It offered good protection, but it severely slowed him down. He considered going down in just the linen, but thought that it would look improper to his new co-workers, so he left the chain on. He walked down the hall into the common room. There was a big long table with benches on either side, and the men in the squadron (15) were sitting down ready to begin eating. Riku took a seat at the end, next to the second in command. He was glad to see that the other soldiers had removed their plate as well, so now everyone was in chain. The second in command then rose and began to speak. 

"My friends. We mourn the loss of our commander, lord Turi. Though he was not loved much, he took care of us, and for that we wish him well in the next life. Tonight we also welcome a new recruit. We are honored to have the Deathlord ummm." He whispered to Riku, "Whats your name?"

Riku thought of giving his real name, but thought better of it.

"Simba."

"Right. Um, we are honored to have the Deathlord Simba join us as a new comrade. I will be taking over Turi's position, and hope to lead us to many victories."

"Here Here!" The men shouted, and raised their cups and drank deeply. Riku followed suit. The men and Riku then consumed the food. Eating roast lamb and vegetables, Riku felt that he would fit in among the men here. Eventually, all the food was gone. The second in command said, "Back to quarters." The men filled out of the room, with Riku last.

"Simba."  
It took Riku half a second to recognize his new name.

"Yes?"

"Next time its 'Yes Sir', and you will be woken up at sunrise to gauge your battle strength. Standard procedure. Now go to your bunk."  
"Yes Sir."

Riku walked down the hallway to the sleeping quarters, and found a bottom bunk bed with a non-snorer over him. Riku took off the mail and fell asleep.

* * *

"Wake up. Come on, get up." The new commander was being very loud, shaking beds, trying to get the men up. Riku slipped out of his bed, and washed his face in a water basin. After a few minutes, the men filed out of the sleeping quarters and outside to a dirt circle.  
"Stretches!" The commanders voice barked. Riku followed what the other men were doing, namely bending themselves in awkward positions. Riku easily exceeded all of them in limberness. 

This continued for a good hour. Doing stretches, some light jogging, and push-ups.

"Breakfast!" The men filed back into the mess hall, where gruel and bread awaited them. They dug in hungrily, stuffing themselves.

"Dismissed till noon, though I highly recommend you all come out to the practice yard. We will be having a show. Simba! You are not dismissed, you are to follow me to the practice yard. And bring that strange weapon of yours, and your armor."

Riku calmly walked out with the rest of the men, and went out into the practice yard. There he was surprised to see that all of the other men had showed up, and were walking around, waiting for him to show up.

"I told you RECRUIT, to bring your sword and armor!"

"I did."

Riku extended his hand and summoned the keyblade. The chorus of "Whoa"s and "Holy Shit"s gave the boy something to smile about.

"And in regards to armor Simba? Going to conjure that too?"

"I don't like it. Too restrictive."

"Very well then. Lets see what you've got." He pointed to a row of logs. "Cut each of those. Vertical, horizontal, vertical, horizontal, all across the line. You have 20 seconds. Begin."

Riku calmly walked up to the first log, and then dashed forward, cutting each log as he ran past it.

"How did you...ok. So you've got speed. A hell of a lot of speed. Now lets try something more complicated. I want you to cut this piece of wood while its in midair."

The commander threw the split log in the air, and Riku threw his keyblade at it.

"You IDIOT. Never throw away your sword. Now go find it. And hurry up."

Riku again extended his hand, and the keyblade reappeared. Instead of saying something, Riku just smiled, and waited for the commander's face to stop looking like he had been slapped with a dead fish.

"Oh boy. Um lets see how well you do without armor. You are only to defend yourself against me."

The commander swung 10 times at Riku, and ten times Riku countered but stopped short of hitting the commander.

"Very well, now lets try it as if your sword had been knocked away."

Riku just noded at the absurdity of this and stuck the keyblade in the ground. The commander again swung ten times, and Riku dodged all of them. On the last one, Riku summoned the keyblade and did his teleportation strike, ending with his back to the commander's back. He poked the commander with the handle of Betrayal. The men had become silent long ago, and were now staring with open admiration and a little fear.

"Right.. Um. You said you had some skill with magic?"

Riku sighed and unsummoned the keyblade. He then used aero to lift the split wood into the air, then ignited it with fira. He then brought all the logs together into one mass and froze it with blizzaga. Riku then cast thundaga and shattered the block of ice into many pieces.

"That work Sir?"

The other men were awestruck by the magical display.

"Not many mages in the army is there?"

"I'm going to have to see about promoting you to a first class private. In the meantime, you are dismissed. Though it looks like you might have to teach a few lessons, judging by the reaction the crowd has."

Indeed, the other men were crowding around Riku, asking him about the keyblade (he called it a gift from a rival), as well as asking him to do some more magic. He refrained from performing any more magic tricks, instead teaching them about proper posture and attack placement.

* * *

"Sir, Captain Reynolds reporting. We picked up a new recruit. He challenged the commander to a duel and split him in two sir. In one blow." 

"Ehhh, what else?"

"He has a staggering control of magic. I have never even seen such a display of magical might before, even by our own mages."

"Hmmm, continue."

"And sir, I think this kid will go far. I can see him commanding the eighth legion at least, if not becoming the honor guard leader. Since the only way to advance is the jousts and duels, I think he will soon be our superior."  
"Keep an eye on him. I will inform my superior."

"Sir, theres one more thing. He can summon this sword, and it looks just like a key. I have never seen anything like it."

"I'll report that too. Dismissed Captain."

* * *

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> 

A/N: Guesses as to which world we are on? (its a Disney world.) REVIEW!


	14. One of the Better Guys

I do not own kingdom hearts, and all characters belong to their respective owners.

* * *

**One of the (Better) Guys**

"One!"

Riku watched as his men practiced for combat.

"Two!"

As one the men drew their swords. Riku felt a sense of pride and a swelling of ego knowing that he controlled these men, they looked to him for guidance, and he looked to them to do his dirty work. Riku looked at the dirty white cloth headband he had been given upon reaching the rank of Captain. It wasn't pretty, but it was a symbol, and here symbols were power.

Riku had been made captain rather quickly after his demonstrations of power. The higher-ups liked power, but not too much, and certainly not so much in a boy scarcely older than a recruit. Ever since his first practice session, everyone in the squadron had watched him work. But Riku never worked with the rest of the unit during training exercises, instead he would wait for a break and then go to work. Riku had gotten an exemption from practicing with the rest of the squadron and was allowed to work alone. This allowed him to go full out without resulting in buckets of blood. Rain, sun or bitching wives, they came regardless. They thought of him as a minor avatar of war, blessed to help them learn. Indeed, when their squadron rejoined with the rest of the division, they had become the best trained unit amongst the five. Either out of envy or admiration, Riku's practice sessions grew so large that even the captain was attending. However, this captain was one of those higher-ups who liked a lot of power in himself and little in everyone else. He resented how the men liked Riku and respected him. The best he could get out of them was a half-hearted "Yes sir." Late one night he had drank a little more than he intended, and was soon quite drunk. After some stumbling around trying to find his tent, he had come upon one of Riku's training sessions. Infuriated, he called out to the youth.

"You! Boy! What sort of backwater ditch did you find that piece of trash you call a sword? Did you steal it from a noble? That sword doesn't even have a proper edge! I ought to kill you for stupidity."

"And if I dye the grass red with your blood?"

"HA! If you can even cut me with that worthless piece of metal. You can take this job if you beat me. Never liked it much in the first place."

"Your wish is my command sir."

The men looked horrified at what was about to happen. Their captain was going to fight the Deathlord Simba. Hopefully, they thought, Simba will not kill him, maybe just beat him up, get a lieutenant's rank, and not make us bring out the buckets.

The captain charged at Riku, swinging wildly. Riku thought it was about time to show these men what he was capable of. Before he had only shown them his elemental magics, since he had gotten a poor welcome from the previous lieutenant of his squadron. But "playtime is over" as they say, and Riku, adding a little flair to it, performed a teleportation strike. He ended up back to back against the captain who froze in fear.

"No one challenges me and lives. No one defeats a deathlord without dying himself. And you are in no shape to even scratch me, let alone destroy me." With that Riku switched the sword's orientation and struck backwards. He impaled the captain, then twisted, unlocking the captains heart. Riku then threw a darkball into the hole to the captain's heart. The captain didn't ever scream, even as he started melting into darkness. Soon all that was left of the captain was a puddle of black goo on the grass. Riku cast blizzaga at it, then lifted the cube and threw it high into the air. Riku jumped up to meet it then brought the blade down with full force upon the block of ice. It shattered into a thousand parts, scattering across the camp.

Riku landed silently, and brushed back his hair.

"I'm tired for tonight boys, I'll see you at my promotion tomorrow morning."

With that, the silver haired boy walked into his tent, and went to sleep.

* * *

With great nervousness the crowd watched as Riku walked up to the dais, and had the cloth headband tied around his forehead. The officiating officer, bowed, and stepped back, allowing Riku the whole of the dais. Riku looked out over the men, he was indifferent to them. After a few minutes, one man shouted, "Speech!" He was swiftly echoed, and the whole camp started up with the chant.

"Shit." Riku thought, "I am not good at public speaking. Ummm, my new rank brings...it brings what? GAH! How am i going to do this?

"Speech Speech Speech Speech Speech"

"My soldiers," Riku began, "Why have you joined this army? Did you join because your mother told you to? Did you join because your father's kicked you out of the house? No. There are two kinds of soldiers here. Those who were forced, and those who joined. For those that were conscripted I demand of you that you grow strong. Grow strong enough to bring honor to your families. Grow strong to make your father's proud."

A third of the men seemed to stand taller.

"For those of you who joined of your own accord, i ask of you, why did you join? Come on, Why? You there." Riku pointed to a man in the third row. "Why did you join?"

"To gain glory for myself, to make myself stronger."

"Glory...and strength. Good choices. I intend to make this division strong, very strong. You all know how strong the squadron I was in before, and that was only from watching me. I can give you strength. As for glory...well, i can do little in that regard. My hands are tied in the matter, as I cannot invade a country by myself. However, should war erupt, I will make this division known, no, well known, to all. They will fear me, and they will fear my division. I, Simba the Deathlord, have spoken."

There was a fair amount of clapping, at least two thirds.

"May i see the lieutenants for each division please after the men have left. Dismissed."

The men walked out, many of them talking to each other about how Riku's speech was interesting, and how they looked forward to future training sessions.

Riku remained on the dais, and five other men approached him.

"You are the lieutenants? Good. I must have words with all of you. First, training must be stepped up, we barely practice for 4 hours a day. In my training I didn't stop swinging my sword from sun-up to sun-down. I want at least 8 hours minimum. And I also want a night exercise taken on every seventh day. That night there will be a stealth mission to...hmm, for starters, lets do the cook's pot. 3 divisions will guard the kitchen, and two divisions will attack and try to get in. I want the fifth squadron and my old squadron, the third, to attack. We will start this exercise tonight. I will be judging. And no real weapons are to be used, its just a war game.

"Yes Sir!"

"Dismissed."

That night Riku stood next to the pot, and waited. At around three in the morning, the entire third squadron walked in single file into the kitchen.

"Sir, we would like the pot."

"Sure take it, what happened to the other squadron?"

"They charged in the front, while we snuck around the back."

"No one stopped you?"

"There was one squadron, but we are strong, and they are not."

"Very good, see you in the morning."

With that Riku walked out of the kitchen and to the commander's tent. It was rather lavish and plushy, so easily fell asleep on the big bed.

* * *

"Three."

The men swung in a diagonal slash.

Riku's division had grown strong in the past month. On their own initiative the men had started doing night games every night, finally culminating in an all out war, with the third squadron acting as a third enemy, so it had eventually come down to a full melee. However, again the third squadron had shown its ingenuity. For all the night missions, no one could think of a way to identify which team one was on. The commander of the third had come up with a password: 'Pot' in honor of the first stolen item. So, the third squadron held back, then charged in, and always whispered "Pot" to any man who they didn't recognize. Even though it had been twenty against eighty, that little password system had allowed them to eliminate friendly losses completely, and they ended up winning the war.

* * *

"My Lady, our war preparations are complete. Stephan will never know what hit him."

"Good. Now we make war. How is Philip doing?"

"He is doing well, in a score he could be a great leader of our country."

* * *

A/N: Yes, i squeezed this one between the old chapters, mainly because i thought Riku needed to spend more time in the army. 


	15. Moving Up

I do not own Kingdom Hearts, and all characters belong to their respective owners.

A/N: I will be using army military rankings for this world, and for information about the units, a squadron is 20 men, a division is 100 men, a cohort is 2000, and a legion is 3 cohorts, or 6000 men.

* * *

**Moving Up**

Riku had adjusted well to his new life. He had become far more interested in the rankings that the men gave themselves: Captain, colonel, liutenet, general. These rankings gave him something to strive for, something to do besides camping out and practicing his swordplay (though he did get plenty of that in too.) Good for him then, that war was brewing between the country that had adopted him and the only other nation on the world, the kingdom of Sachris. Like a good soldier, Riku diligently sharpened his sword and waited for the war. His unit, the 3rd division of the 2nd cohort of the 8th legion had been relocated to the eastern edge of the country, Drachis, and was accompanied by the rest of the cohort. Trouble seemed to like Riku, as not two days had passed before he got a report.

"Sir! The Sachrians have invaded across our eastern border! They are particularly concentrated here, but they are invading all across the border, so no one can send help to reinforce us."

"How many?"

"Our scouts report at least 2 cohorts, though it could well in fact be the whole legion. The number of that legion is apparently either 4 or 6."

"Why does that matter?"

"The commander of the 6th legion is cautious and very conservative in his approaches, which makes the other commanders suspect that it is the fourth. That legion is led by General Uler. Very rash, and very prone to all or nothing battles. If we face him in open field, we are going to be in serious trouble."

"How far away?"

"Ummm, only a few hours east, though they have stopped to set up camp."

Riku considered his position. He was pretty sure that he could take on a whole cohort, maybe two, but three would be pushing it. However, he was relatively sure that his cohort could meet and defeat any other cohort.

"Very good sergeant, you are dismissed."

Riku walked over to the command tent. Captain Reynolds had been promoted as well, due to his realization of Riku's strength to the Kingdom. He was now a Major, and commanded the first three divisions of the second cohort. There he greeted the other men and listened to the Colonel give his speech.

"We can't take on a whole legion by ourselves, it just would not work. So our best option is to fall back to this pass, where we can probably hold them until reinforcements arrive. Unless anyone has a better idea, we have 1 day to move out."

"SIR!" Riku shouted, "Simba of the 3rd division. I believe I have a plan. However, I have come across one hitch. For this to work, I need every man in the cohort ready to cut down down a fleeing enemy, and be rested enough to pursue them for a day."

"And how do you propose to get them to retreat," The colonel looked at Riku's clothing for identifiers as to rank, "Captain?"

"Oh thats easy. I'll kill as many as I can. I figure that to be about two cohorts. Maybe a couple of divisions on top of that. But by then they should have started retreating."

The room was stunned in silence. Then the tent burst into laughter.

"Good try kid. Glory will come in battle to those who wait. We leave for the pass in twenty four hours. DISMISSED!"

Riku walked out of the tent more angry than he had been in a long time. He wanted the glory, he wanted the awe and respect that he knew he was due. And he most definetly wanted that Colonel's job. He was not meant to be a foot soldier, he was meant to be a powerful man. So he went back to his division's grounds, and went into the mess hall. The room was full of noise as the men went about filling their stomachs with the daily gruel and drink.

"QUIET!" The room quickly silenced itself, with a few whispered conversations.

"Who seeks glory amongst all of you weaklings? Who seeks the chance to prove their worth? Who seeks to prove that they are better than their so-called 'superiors'?"

Shouts of "Here Here!" and others greeted Riku's speech.

"I can give you this. I can give you this in under a day. The commanders refused to see my idea, so I will go to those who will be doing the real fighting. They would have you move to a pass and hide behind mountains as these men marched toward your homes. I would seek them out and destroy them on our terms. Those who agree with me meet me at the armory."

Riku walked out of the mess hall and took the long route to the armory, wanting to give the men as much time to round up their fellows and get them to the armory as well. When he approached, the building was full, and there was many standing outside. The entire division had come out to hear his speach. Riku cast an earth spell and created a platform for himself just outside.

"Men of Drachis! Grab your swords, grab your horses. Today you will ride out and attack the whole host of the enemy that you have heard about."

"This is insanity sir! Even though we have a full division, we cannot take on a whole legion! Its suicide. Glory is great, but it is useless without someone to live to tell the tale. I beg you to reconsider."

Riku noticed that it was the same man who had given him the report earlier. A very good soldier, he looked out for his men, he would go far.

"All that I ask of you men is to kill twenty, and to make things a little easier, I'll get their morale so low that they will be running away in no time. I'll go now and kill 2 cohorts, and by then, you should have arrived and be ready to take down the retreating enemies."

"Sir, no man can take on a division, let alone two cohorts!" The same soldier again.

"I am a Deathlord. The only limit on how many I can kill is how few run away. You all have heard or even seen my magic skills. A lucky few of you have heard what I can do with this sword." Riku held up Betrayal to illustrate. "But since you are so concerned about everyone else, I'm appointing you to lead these men in the attack. Judge for yourself if its too difficult a fight for you all. But the men who go and attack will be part of a division that will be legendary. Our names will be known for the whole of time. And with that, I leave now, I expect to see you in a few hours gentlemen. And do bring horses, easier to kill fleeing men from if you can move faster than they can."

Riku then created a dark portal at his feet, and slowly sunk through it.

_At the Sachrian camp_

Riku appeared suddenly in a field just outside the main camp of the Sachrians, as the sun approached its zenith. He called out to the sentries at the edge of the camp.

"I am a Drachian Deathlord! I hereby condemn you all to die! Come and face me on the open battlefield you weak boys! I can't believe that you even had the gall to invade. No, you are just too STUPID to know that you are dead. You just aren't in a bloody heap yet. Come and face me, and I'll fix that."

The two sentries were amused by the boy's taunts, but were nervous because of the boy's sudden appearance only a few hundred feet from camp.

"Major! We have a problem. The warrior from Stephan's army has suddenly appeared outside our camp, and is taunting us to fight him. From what we saw he has no weapon, and is not even wearing any armor. He doesn't even have a shield, though he did call himself a Deathlord. I would suspect he is a mage sir, or maybe even a fairy. What should we do sir?"

"Send one of our own mages to blast him out of existence."

"Right away sir."

The soldier dashed off towards the mage's tents. He entered the nearest tent he could find, and spoke.

"Sirs, I have a request from Major Perry. There is a boy outside the camp. We believe him to be a mage. Can you go kill him for us. We would not like to waste the lives of men when only a strong mage can kill him."

"I will go." A gruff man in a jeweled and lavish robe. "In fact, round up the other mages. I intend to have sport with this boy, regardless of his magic skills or not."

* * *

Riku had finished taunting the men after it appeared that nothing would happen, so he started walking towards the camp. He had crossed about half the distance when a crowd approached him. Riku stopped and waited. He wanted to hit the hornet's nest enough so that the men would be angry enough to ignore the casualties and continue to attack him. That would give his own men enough time to get here. 

"Deathlord are you? Ha! You look to be nothing but a loud whelp! Why don't you go home to your mother. I think I hear the dinner bell ringing!" the man with the flashy robe said as he walked, stopping a good dozen yards from Riku. The men accompanying him had stopped some distance back.

"Bring it, you pompous sham. I don't even detect any magic power in you."

"Why you...I'll show you the power of the spirits and the earth, as they crush your bones! Quo idon, rey otu cami pero!" Riku felt a swirl of the earth at his feet, and jumped to the side to avoid the hand of earth that grabbed at where he had been.

"This you call magic? You have to chant to create your magic?" Riku snapped his fingers. A dark cloud formed over the mage's head and a single lighting bolt struck, hitting the man with full force. His clothing caught on fire, and all his jewelery melted from the shock. He then collapsed, dead.

"Did the boy even say anything? What power. We must overcome him quickly."

The rest of the mages started chanting, and various spells came flying towards Riku, but he managed to dodge them all. Quite quickly he was a few yards from the frightened mages.

"Graviga!" A dark ball of force slammed on top of the mages, flattening all of them.

"Major Perry! All of our mages are dead!"

"What! Send word to the general, get him out here. We have a situation."

Riku examined his magic reserves. He probably had enough for another graviga, maybe even a few other spells, however, he barely had enough to create another portal, which would be a good way to recuperate. Riku smiled.

Today would be a good day.

Tomorrow he would deal with the court martial.

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

* * *

a/n: I would like to thank all my reviewers, (all three of them) for helping me out. Special shout out to my first anonymous, as well as attaasa. Additionally, Rablagon will be doing an art piece of Riku with the new colors. That should be coming soon. Send in reviews. One a chapter I hope is not too much to ask. Again, thank you for reviewing and reading, and keep it up. 

Also, still no guesses as to what world. The disney movie was made in the 1950s, and cost 6 million to make.


	16. The Counting Game

Disclaimer: I do not own kingdom hearts, and all characters belong to their respective owners.

A/n: If somehow you don't like blood, and are still reading this fic, scroll to the bottom (I'm bringing out the heavy guns for this chapter) a summary will be posted there.

* * *

**The Counting Game**

"We are under attack!" was the shout that came from Major Perry. Instantly the Sachrian camp was a hubbub of activity. Swords and pikes were grabbed, armor was donned. General Uler walked out with his train and headed towards the west, where the Major was screaming his head off.

"Major, Report!"

"Sir, our entire division of mages was destroyed."

"What? How?"

Perry pointed to Riku, who had started walking towards the camp.

"That, demon, sir. He called himself a 'Drachian Deathlord'. I didn't know Stephan's army even had such a unit. He taunted the sentries, who suspected his magic abilities due to his lack of weapon and armor. I sent word to the mages, who came out in force. One of them…I don't remember his name, but he was one of the higher ranking mages, attempted to kill the boy, but suddenly a bolt of lighting struck him."

Uler looked at the sky, it was a clear blue day, without a cloud in the sky. Puller noticed his commander's gaze and replied:

"That proved he was a mage sir. He just snapped his fingers and our mage was struck dead. He then charged the other mages and cast a single spell, and they were all flattened to the earth. I have never even heard of such spells."

"Stupid runt, probably expended all his magic to do that. I want a division to take him out. Though if they could capture him that would be better. He might have insight on Stephan's plans."

"Yes Sir! You," Major Perry pointed to a captain. "Take your unit and capture him, but if that proves too difficult, kill him."

"Sir!" The man ran over to his division, which had finished arming itself after the call was made. "We have an intruder on the west side. Our orders are to capture or kill, preferably capture him. Now, lets get him."

"Hoora!" The men shouted, and started at a brisk jaunt to the west end of the camp. When the got there, Riku was a scant 200 feet from the walls of the camp. General Uler, dressed in his golden armor, was standing on a watch tower overlooking the western edge of camp. He saluted the men heading out to capture the boy. They saluted back. It was their last salute.

Riku stopped as the division approached him. He yawned, he had expected at least 5 divisions after his defeat of the mages, if not a full cohort. He would have to step up the damage if he wanted to draw out the rest of the army.

"Charge!" the captain said, and his men rushed forward.

Riku loosened his grip on the keyblade, it would allow him to swing the sword more fluidly. The approaching soldiers were all swordsman, which was good for Riku, since Betrayal was a little longer than the average sword. The first swordsman stopped a few feet from Riku and spoke.

"I am Telth of Sachris, and I will kill you Deathlord!"

"The dead have no names, even if they do walk." Riku summoned Betrayal, and smirked at the man's stunned face. He then lunged and using the thin point of his blade, pierced through the man's armor, right into his heart.

_101_

The rest of the division approached and fanned out, surrounding Riku. He swung left, beheading a man.

_102_

Then he jumped and landed on the body's shoulder's, and from his height advantage separated three other men's heads from their respective bodies.

_105_

Riku leaped off the falling body and flipped over another man and swung as he sailed through the air, splitting the face of the man below him in half.

106

He continued this game of body hopping, and finally landed in a group of 7 men, and executing a swift turn, disemboweled the lot of them.

_143_

His smirk had long ago grown into a full blown smile, as his shirt and pants turned a lovely shade of red from the blood of his victims. Riku grabbed one of the men's intestines and squeezed it before his dying eyes. Those eyes grew huge, and the scream that followed sounded like music to Riku's ears. The remaining men were visibly disturbed by how quickly so many of their number had been defeated. But they were hardened veterans, and renewed the fight.

Uler, however, was not happy with the results. He had expected the division to easily capture the boy, not be toyed as if it were nothing but straw.

"Major Perry. Get the archers in front of the walls now. If the division fails to take him, I want him to be a pincushion."

"Yes sir! Archers! To the fore!"

_160_

Riku wished that he knew sonic blade at the moment. It would have saved him a lot of time. However, he would not be having as much fun if he did. He slammed Betrayal downward, turned the blade, and yanked it free from the man's skull. The fountain of blood had no effect on Riku's clothes. They were already soaked through with the blood of his enemies.

_161_

Riku turned away from the camp and started running, slashing at any body part that he came across.

_170_

The remaining soldiers were in a line behind him, trying to chase him. Riku turned and lifted the keyblade high. He then threw it at the approaching enemies, severing heads and splitting torsos wide open. Screams were heard as far away as the back of the camp.

_189_

They keyblade came to rest in the chest of the last man, and as he fell, it stuck out of him at a perfect 90 degree angle. The remaining men froze with fear as almost twenty of them were killed in a single instant. The captain, somehow still alive, rallied his men.

"Now! He is without a weapon, kill the demon!"

Riku realized the problem that he faced. Eleven men stood between him and his sword, and he dared not spend any more mana than necessary. The closest man to him swung wildly, and Riku was easily able to dodge the strike. He grabbed the mans wrist and twisted, and the sword fell from his grasp. Riku lifted the sword straight up through the man. At the point of impact, the man screamed. As it traveled up through his chest, he screamed louder. After the blade was dead center in his sternum, he began coughing blood on Riku's face. When his head split in two, he stopped screaming. Riku wiped the blood off his face and spit out the blood that had got in his mouth. When he moved his hand, his smile was as wide as could be. He addressed the closest man.

"I hope you left your wife happy, because I will make sure she never sees your face again."

Riku charged the men, and cut the top of the his head off in one clean strike, leaving only a jaw attached to a body.

_190_

"Your son will never have a father to look up to."

Riku squared off against the next man, who was visibly shaking. The man swung high, while Riku ducked. Riku struck twice, once mid-thigh, and again just below the rib cage. The man fell screaming bloody murder, uselessly using his arms to try to pull his gut back to the rest of him. Riku slammed the sword into the man's face, all the way to the hilt. He then picked up the man's sword.

_191_

The captain charged him next, and Riku switched hand placement on the sword, and pointed the handle at the charging captain and the blade was pointed away.

The captain raised his sword high, and brought a killing blow down on Riku. Or at least where Riku was supposed to be. Instead he felt a sharp pain in his chest, and as he looked down, a sword was impaled right through him. He shakily turned around, and there was Riku, sweeping his hair back with his left hand. Riku again switched hand positions and faced the captain. He then twisted himself so that the handle was next to and parrelle his left side, then swung with all his force. The sword exploded out of the captain's right side.

_192_

Riku ran forward, and slashed at the next group, this one was of five. He disemboweled one and decapitated his neighbor in one move, his sword held just below head level.

_194_

Riku then spun his weapon is his hand, and slashed the throats of two others.

196

The remaining one dropped his sword and ran. Riku switched hand positions and threw the sword as a javelin, impaling the man through the back of the head.

_197_

Riku picked up two of the men's swords, and repeated the process on two of the remaining men.

_199_

The final men fell to his feet, his sword of obviously no use.

"Please sir. Spare me. I am Kenith sir. I can help you, I know a lot of people, I can help you!" Riku kicked the bowing man over. Then he picked up the man's sword. "The dead have no names." He then plunged the sword into the man's chest. Kenith squirmed, desperately trying to free himself, but he was pinned to the ground.

_200_

"All Archers! FIRE!"

Riku looked up, for some reason, he couldn't see the sky.

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

* * *

A/n: To summarize, Riku killed a division without casting any magic. He does not have betrayal (its sticking out of some guy), and read the last two lines for the rest of the summary. And Riku likes to smile when blood is soaking his clothes. Riku is smiling. 

I think this is a nice cliffhanger. And still no guesses as to the world. Stephan is important here people (that is, if anyone is actually reading)


	17. Return to Sender

I do not own Kingdom Hearts, and all characters belong to their respective owners.

A/N: Just fyi, I turned in the pre-Pride Rock section for my English class, and got a 25 out of 25 on it. My reasoning? My teacher is a sadist who likes explicit violence. Same warning applies to this chapter as it does to last chapter. If you are squeamish about reading about blood fountains and missing heads, skip to the bottom.

* * *

**Return to Sender**

Nuyori Bansi had been an average archer; he was only good at volleys because accuracy didn't count. He, along with the rest of the legion, had been sent out in a battle line in front of the walls of the camp. They had been ordered to leave quickly, barely having time to grab a quiver, and some were forced to resort to sharing. Not that it mattered though, Nuyori only saw one man; and no man could stand up against over a thousand arrows being fired at once. He drew the arrow back to his ear and waited for the order.  
"All archers, FIRE!"  
Nuyori let go and the arrow, along with a thousand, others streaked towards the blood soaked youth.  
Riku looked up, and for a second could not realize why he was unable see the sky; luckily realization hit him before the arrows did.  
"SHIT." Riku said, and was momentarily paralyzed with fear, he mentally ran through the list of elements. Fire? No. Ice? no. Thunder? Maybe. Gravity? No, too magic intensive. Air? Bingo.  
"Aeroga Reversal!" Riku shouted and the winds began to swirl around him like it normaly did with an aero spell. However, the wind was going much faster, and was further out from his body. It looked as though he was in the middle of a small tornado. Not even a second later, the first of the arrows came in contact with the spell. The arrow spun completely around Riku then was sent flying back to its bowman, followed immediately by the others. Riku heard wet thuds, looked at the bodies of the archers, and he let the winds die down as he continued to walk towards the .  
1200  
Nuyori was not pleased. In fact he was downright unhappy. The fact he had an arrow sticking out from his gut was probably the source of some of the discomfort. He looked over; every single archer had an arrow sticking out of them. He was one of the unlucky few who hadn't died quickly. He was so unlucky, in fact, that when the general shouted for all units to charge, he was swiftly trampled and killed by the men he had died protecting.  
Riku ran over and grabbed the keyblade from its resting place and prepared to meet the oncoming army. First came the cavalry, they didn't last long.  
Riku held betrayal in both hands and stepped back in order to balance his stance. The first cavalryman leveled his lance at the boy. Riku dodged horse-side and disemboweled the horse. The man went impaling himself on a sword that had been sticking out of another of the dead  
1201  
"Lucky!" Riku thought and his smile returned, as he parried another horseman's lance and eviscerated the rider.  
1202  
Three more charged at him, their spears forming a moving wall of metal. Riku jumped high and twisted midair, a landed behind the middle man. With his left hand he put the man in front of him in a head lock while using Betrayal to rid the right hand rider of his remaining lifespan  
1203  
By this time, the horseman on the left had dropped his spear in favor of his sword. He then swung at Riku, aiming for the boy's back. Riku brought up Betrayal behind his back and blocked, barely escaping the fate he had been dealing to others. He then realized that, at the moment, he had no viable way to kill the man on his left, he let go with his left hand before grabbing the man by the back of the neck and throwing him off his horse. Riku then leaped forward and into the saddle before pointing his left index finger and cast fire; the fireball blasted a fist-sized hole through the enemy rider. The man fell to the ground, with a look of shock on his visage.  
1204  
Riku grabbed the reins of his horse with his left hand and wrapped it around his wrist then moved his hand left, trying to turn the horse around. The horse instead moved to the right. Riku looked down and realized that the way he was holding the reins caused the horse to go the opposite direction and then shifted his grip on the reigns to accommodate the error."Ok, I can deal with this. Right is left, left is right. Easier than killing shadows."  
Riku, having figured out how to turn a horse, turned around and surveyed the approaching enemy. All 1796 of them. Riku wiped his hands on the horse, getting rid of a majority of the blood that had soaked them. He then dug his heels into the horse's flanks, causing the horse to dart forward. He charged at the mass of cavalry that had followed the first four; swung, left, right, left right, right right left, block counter block counter, repeating his litany of gore as he carried it out.  
1213  
Riku continued his charge, and was soon amongst the infantry. He let his sword swing parallel to the horses sides on both sides as he tore through the ranks. Eventually, after about 3 minutes of wading through enemies, he reached the other side.  
1458  
Unfortunately, the exercise had proven to be too much for Riku's mount, who collapsed, foaming blood at the mouth and with a few spears sticking out of its flanks. Riku jumped off in time, and turned and faced the mass of the enemy that had surrounded him. Riku raised his sword, and the Sachrians charged. However, the first row stopped, and the second row banged into them. Riku had disappeared. Suddenly men all over the field were sent flying into the air by huge explosions of fire, a whole path of them fell, killed by a black streak. Then another. And another. The explosions kept up for two minutes, occurring randomly yet always hitting its mark. The mass of Sachrians began to thin as Riku's blade cut paths though their ranks. When the unseen attacks came to a halt, Riku stood where he began, drenched and dripping with blood.  
2404  
General Uler looked around, the brat that was supposed to be a way for some of the recruits to bloody their swords had turned into a demon that had slain over two cohorts. This was too much.  
"RETREAT! ALL UNITS RETREAT!"  
That call was just what Juntor had tried so desperately to dissuade the captain from performing the mission.  
"Men of Drachis, our captain has had his fun. He is tired, let him rest. We will now run down the weak Sachrians. Charge!"  
From beyond the plain Riku spotted a dust cloud moving. He stabbed right, then pulled the blade out and swung behind him.  
2406  
The men around him had started running for the camp, seeking protection in its walls. Riku cast firaga and blasted huge holes in the walls and incidentally igniting many of the camp tents. Riku then sat down on a man's body, and tried wiping the blood off of his face with his hands, but they were so covered in blood it did no good. And the ground itself had been dyed red, so there was no help there either. So Riku stood up and started walking away from the camp, perpendicular to the line between the dust cloud and the camp. Eventually, he got out of the bloody mess of bodies and found a stream just as his division charged through. Riku crawled into the stream and was too tired to do much more than just let the river wash away the coating of blood on him. Getting cold, he stood up and looked towards the camp. The fleeing Sachrians had already given up on seeking refuge in the camp, and had tried running off in any direction the could, but the Drachian cavalry had cut them down to a man.  
Juntor got off of his horse and walked over to his sitting captain. "Good afternoon sir. Did you enjoy your walk in the field?" He said, extending his hand to help Riku up.  
"It was very nice thank you. Though I think they retreated a little early for my tastes. Pity, did you enjoy your ride through the camp?" Riku said, taking his hand and stepping up.  
"It was nice, would have been better if they didn't run so fast, but I won't complain."

* * *

The men returned to camp, even the horses were drunk, so much alcohol was poured that night. Riku got his first real taste of the drink, followed logically by his first hangover the next morning. Riku chose an amber drink, scotch, as his personal favorite. It was something he could relax with and sip, instead of gulping beer like many of the other men.

* * *

Despite Riku's worries of a court martial, he had instead been awarded the Glory Medallion, the highest medal in the kingdom. It was to be personally given to him by the king, and what's more, he was invited to the naming of the princess, who would soon be born. But the naming was not for another 6 months at least which gave Riku plenty of time to have fun as a newly ranked Lt. General.  
Riku had taken his night games to a whole different level than before with his division. Since he had partial control of the legion, he had instituted a new weekly night game exercise, very similar to his stealing game. However, instead of the small items that had been done before, Riku had the men engage in more difficult missions. One of them was a modified capture the flag. However, the flag happened to be a "princess". To add another twist, the "princess" was really the men who had slacked off that day during training. Another of Riku's personal favorites was tournament. While regular tournaments had been held every couple of years, these were held every week, the day before the night mission. But, the rules were never quite the same. As decided by a coin flip, the winner would choose what game to play, from rock paper scissors to a hand to hand combat to a race. Due to the huge number of participants, only one man from each division could participate. This created pre-tournaments before the actual competition, providing endless hours of amusement and training. Riku himself had entered once, when one man couldn't participate due to a sever hangover. Riku had only made it to the second round. Because he was so feared for anything physical, he was always challenged to rock, paper, and scissors. Riku's luck on the battlefield did not extend far, since then even the general had tried the tournament once. He got to the third round, then lost to a duel to Juntor. Being rather pleased with themselves, that division had thrown a huge party. And the prime drink of the night? Scotch.

* * *

_Seven months later_  
Riku, dressed in the blue uniform of the general caste, walked up to the dais. 

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A/N: If you noticed an improvement in grammar consistency and clarity, you can thank my new beta reader, for smacking me until I get _**smack** _GOT! things right.

Also, i would like to apoligize. My beta is off on a trip, and was supposed to have checked chap. 20, but that did not happen, probably packing and buying stuff and whatnot. So, this will not be updated until mid august. However, that does not mean i will not be slaving away for my readers (both of them). I will be writing up chapters 21 and 22, and maybe 23, and have them on Beta's desk when she gets back. Again, my sincerest apolgies,

JSD


	18. The Bitch is Back

A/N: And now, the moment you have all been waiting for, I will now reveal which world Riku is currently occupying. Additionally, I would like to apologize, I do not know exactly what the blessings are, so I sorta guessed/improvised.

Disclaimer: I Do not own Kingdom Hearts, and all characters belong to their respective owners.

* * *

Riku, dressed in the blue uniform of the general caste, walked up to the dais. 

"8 months I have stayed here, and finally I get to meet the man in charge." Riku thought.

At the dais sat a king in a long red robe, and his queen in a long blue robe. The crowns were simple, circlets of gold with stones equally spaced. Riku walked proudly up to the foot of the stairs, and bowed his head.

"Rise great warrior, and state your name." The Drachian king, Stephan said.

"I am Simba." Riku said, standing.

"And noble Simba, tell us why we should confer upon you the glory medallion, given only to heroes, and up till now, only those who had died. Why should your name be added to those of the honored dead?"  
Riku paused for a second, then repeated the speech he was given beforehand, "I, Simba, vanquished two thousand, four hundred, and six enemies of this kingdom. Without any backup, without any help, and without any rest, I put them all to the sword. My subordinate, Juntor, and the rest of my division, killed all the routing warriors."

"That is quite a feat, but I only have the word of you and your men. Luckily, we have an independent source to reveal the truth. Bring forth the prisoner."

Two of the kings personal guard, recognizable by their black and yellow clothes, led a bound man towards dais.

"State your name prisoner."

"I am Uler."

"And what is your rank?"

"I am a General of Her Majesty Maleficent's army."

"**Malificent**?" Riku's mind collapsed on itself, as the youth desperately tried to figure out what he had just heard.

"And do you recognize this boy?"

"I see no boy here. I see a demon, one who destroyed my entire legion in under a day."

"Thank you. As per our agreement, you will be released into Maleficent's care. Take him out of my sight."

The two guards took the prisoner out of the main chamber into an anteroom.

"Well, now we have proof. So it is with great joy that I give you, Simba, Deathlord of Drachis, the Glory Medallion!" A resounding applause filled the audience, as everyone joined in the ovation to Riku.

"It was because of you, that Maleficent's army surrendered, and for the peace you have given us, the people of Drachis will thank you. Now approach and receive your reward."

Riku stumbled up the stairs, still overcome by the knowledge of Maleficent's continued existence.

"May any who doubt your strength, and doubt your valor, look upon this medallion and now that they are in the presence of a true hero!" Again applause filled the room.

"You may stand at my right hand, as an honorary member of the guard."  
"Th Thank you your majesty." Riku numbly said, and trudged to the spot indicated by the King, his mind still not sure exactly what was going on anymore.

"How can she possibly live?" Riku thought. "Something strange is going on here. But I have work to do now, i'll worry about it later." Riku visibly straightened as he put that particular worry out of his mind and focused on his current efforts, namely looking sharp and standing straight.

"And now for the main event. The naming of our daughter. My lady, if you would please." Stephan said, gesturing to his wife.

The queen lifted the baby out of its crib, and held it out before her. "I give to you, people of Drachis, your new Princess. Aurora!" Cheers and clapping filled the audience.

Just then, three streaks of light filled the room, one red, one green, and one blue. They danced around the audience, finally stopping at the foot of the dais. After a flash of light, three women appeared.

"We are the faeries, my lord, and we have come to bless your child."

They were all dressed with long dresses and pointy hats. One was in only red, another in green and the third in blue.

The red one stood up and spoke. "I am Fauna. I have come to bless your daughter with a beautiful countenance, the likes of which have yet to be seen in this world." The faerie waved her wand, and a red streak of light surrounded the babe, and then subsided. The green one spoke next.

"I am Flora. I will bless her with a kind and caring heart. She will be a beacon of hope and happiness for all those who meet her." Again the faerie waved her wand, and again the light shone, green this time. Finally the blue one spoke.

"I am Merriweather."

**BOOM!  
**  
A large explosion rocked the castle, and in the middle of the room a column of black and green smoke billowed up. When it cleared, there stood Maleficent, whole as the day Riku met her.

"I am most shocked, that your highness would neglect to send me an invitation to your daughter's naming. It matters not." She said with a shrill laugh, "I have brought her a gift nonetheless. On her eighteenth birthday, she shall prick her finger on a spindle and she will..."

"Not be disturbed by the likes of you, witch!" Riku shouted, and jumped in front of Maleficent, summoning the keyblade.

"Who dares stop me? No one here...no. It can't be. Noooo. You are Riku! Why are you...Why are you alive?"

"I should ask the same question. Last I saw of you was after I had opened your heart to darkness and then Sora moped the floor with you."

"Why should I tell you boy? You have been a hindrance to me since I first saw you. I shall kill you where you stand. Still afraid of the darkness?"

Riku held out a forceball, and smiled as Maleficent raised her eyebrows. He then threw it at her full force. She blocked it with her staff, but the weapon shattered due to the impact. Maleficent did not have any time to react, because Riku had again impaled her with the keyblade.

"You believe what Ansem said about the heart being innately dark right? Well, I wonder what should happen if I lock out the darkness, and then kill you? What would happen?"

"No. Please stop I beg you. Please, spare me."

"Burn in purgatory or whever it is you will go, and wander, forever cut off from what you really want." With that, Riku locked Maleficent's heart, then extracted the blade, and slashed upward, severing her arm. Before she had time to scream, he slashed horizontally, and severed her head from her body. Blood spattered all over Riku's blue uniform.

Riku unsummoned the keyblade and turned around, to a stunned court.

"Um" Riku looked around nervously. He had acted without thinking, and the looks on the courtiers was shock, so he couldn't glean if he had done something good or bad. "She and I, um, had some issues a few years back."

"Apparently!" The king said, "This is going to be difficult. Not only was she the most powerful Faerie, but she was also the Queen of Sachris. I do hope you have an idea of how to figure out this problem, because you just assassinated the queen of the country we just had a truce with."

"Oh shit. I still have to stay here for another four months, and being on the run is not what I had planned for the final third of my stay here." Riku thought, as he scanned the room, his eyes fell on the third faerie, the one in blue.

"You! Lady in blue, can I ask for your help in this matter?" Riku said, pointing to the blue faerie.

The little faerie was still extremely flustered after being interrupted and for watching her interrupter get executed. She answered without thinking, "Yes yes. Wait, what did you say?" Then she realized her mistake. She said a most unladylike word, but only Riku heard her.

"Great. Can you use magic to find out what Maleficent was going to say?" Riku looked nervously at the crowd. They had regained their composure and were chatting amongst themselves. Many were giving Riku looks similar to the one that Sora had given him, the look of profound grief and sadness that stemmed from being betrayed.

"Um, I guess I could, but I'm not sure. Probably the best I can do is get her intent, but not her exact words. I'll need her head."

Riku picked up and threw the woman Maleficent's head. The faerie squeaked and jumped out of its way, then remembered her purpose and followed after it. Luckily, the horns prevented it from rolling too far. The faerie picked up the head and stared into the eyes of the corpse. She gasped, then dropped the head in surprise.

"It, it was an intent to kill! She meant to kill the princess!"

Riku gave a sigh of relief, turned to the king and knelt. "If it pleases your majesty, I have dispatched the assassin that attempted to take away the life of your daughter. It was my honor to serve."

"Thank god. I was worried what prince Phillip would do if he heard that we had executed his mother."

"If you put it that way, I would have declared war." A voice from the crowd said. The courtiers pulled back from the voice, revealing a lad that looked to be about half Riku's age. "However, I would not wish harm to come to the princess, and besides, its good to be the king isn't it Stephan? And since the queen is dead, that makes me king. And as such," He took a deep breath, and a slight blush creeped into his face, "I would like to propose a marriage, between me and the princess there. If she gets the things that the faeries promised, it will be well worth it."

"OOOOOH!" The faerie in blue shouted, "I still have not given my gift! I am Merriweather, and I bless this child to have a happy and fulfilling marriage that will bring happiness to the kingdoms." A stream of blue light circled around the babe, then dissipated.

"Whew! That was close." Riku thought, "I think I'll put on a low profile for a while. I don't like the looks these Royal folks give me." Riku thought. The pain was less than it was before, time indeed had started its work. He was growing older, and the look on Sora's, and the courtiers' faces, was now just disturbing in its own right, with only half the guilt.

"Thank you Merriweather. Court is dismissed while we get things back together."

The courtiers' left the room, some with relief, some with suspicion and none too few with a mass of confusion.  
"Now however, we have another problem. Simba, cough I mean, Riku." Stephan said, "Can you please discuss your involvement with Maleficent? I'm dying to know. Oh, excuse my blindness. Page, clean up this mess please." Stephan said, indicating the blood and body of Maleficent.

"Husband," The queens said, "too much has happened today for me, i beleive we all need a good night's sleep and everything will resovle itself i'm sure."

"I agree, let us all retire. Before anything else happens." He whispered to Riku, "Don't think you are out of the clear yet Riku, I expect a full report of your and Maleficent's issues on my desk tomorrow morning. Pleasant dreams." The king said with a scowl, he did not like violence in his chamber.

"Yes your majesty." Riku said nodding. "Well he didn't ask why I used a different name than my real one, thats some comfort."

* * *

Riku was pacing. The clock struck the second of three chimes. "Three oclock already" Riku thought. There was only a few lines written down, and the scribe was getting impatient. 

"Read to me again what we have so far."

_I am Riku. I am from another world, named Destiny Islands. I am on a journey to learn from each world that I visit. I will be staying here for another four months, and then I will leave. As to Maleficent_

"Hmmm, how much to tell. I have already told him I'm from another world, however, I haven't told him about the time dilation thingy-mabob, then again he probably wouldn't get it anyway. Hmmm. I haven't told him how long I have been journeying, and he doesn't know my age. Lets see, I'm almost eighteen. There was a fourteen year time period that I skipped. Minus my age when I first met her, that means that I have sixteen years to work with. So, I met her...ten years ago. No, its gotta be at least fourteen years ago, because thats when she showed up here probably. Why not go with fifteen? Wait, forgot about the fact that I've been back in the real world for almost two years. Its got to be 16 years ago. In reality that would have made me one, but I'll tell him that I'm thirty-one, and just young-looking. Or something like that, hopefully he'll just take it hook, line and sinker." Riku thought.  
"OK, heres the plan. Now copy everything I say. As to Maleficent, I met her on my journey sixteen years ago. She tricked me into betraying my friends and allowed me to be possessed by an evil spirit. Thats why the bitch had to die."

"Sounds good sir. I'll go put this on his desk."

"Thank you scribe. Now remember, not a word to anyone else." Riku threw the lad a gold coin, one of many he had gotten as prizes throughout the time he had spent on this world.

"Thank you milord!" The scribe sped out of the room leaving his pen and ink.

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A/N: If your Disney lore is not quite up to Jeopardy status yet, we are now in the world of Sleeping Beauty.


	19. Darkness Guide Me

A/N: I would like to thank my reviewer Quellesirel (and Rablagon of course), which brings me to an important point. If you are going to review this (and in case you are wondering, I have enough fingers to count reviews on.), please sign your reviews, that way I can read YOUR work. Its read and read alike! Now, with the semi-formalities dispensed, on to the important stuff, the conclusion of this world! (now to the formalities) Disclaimer: I do not own Kingdom Hearts, and all characters belong to their respective owners.

**Darkness Guide Me**

After the scribe had left with his letter, Riku sat on his bed and began digesting the information that had been prsented to him that day. As was usually the case, Riku grabbed a paper and the scribe's inkwell and pen, and started writing a list. It was useful in that once put on the paper, the words allowed him to recall all that he needed to, so that it served as a sort of memory guide, that guided his mind to the proper things.

1.Maleficent did not die when Sora killed her.

2.I have found one of the princesses of heart, Aurora, though she appears to have just been born, yet at the time she appeared full grown.

_Riku carried the limp body of Jasmine into the Great Hall._

"_Good job Riku. You are such a great help to me." Maleficent said, turning to face the youth._

"_This makes six yes? Tell me of the others." Riku dropped the princess to the floor.  
_

"_Well, first let me take care of that one." Maleficent pointed her staff at Jasmine, and then swung it to her right. Jasmine flew into one of the alcoves of the hall. She waved her other hand over the princess's form, and petrified wood grew up her boy. With a sharp tap on the ground with her staff, a sheet of crystal entobmed the princess._

"_As for the others Riku, this one is Belle." Maleficent pointed at a princess in a yellow dress, with long brown hair. "Her keeper was not pleased that I took her. You may have to deal with him, but he is no match for you. Next is Snow White." A woman with a blue and yellow dress with black hair. "Alice." A young girl with blond hair and a blue and white dress. "Cinderrella." A blonde with a very shiny white dress. "And my personal favorite, Aurora." A golden haried woman with a red dress._

"_Now go to see Hook and bring Wendy, the seventh."_

"_Yes my lady."_

"She definetly was full grown, yet that was almost 18 years ago, and she looked twenty. Not sure how Maleficent did that. Damn her. Well, that pretty much covers it, so now what to do?" Riku thought.

Finding no immediate solution, Riku started to get in bed and go to sleep when a knock interrupted him.

"Come in."

The red fairy, fauna, walked in.

"My lord Riku?"

"Yes? Why are you wasting my time?

"I came here to ask you a question."

"Quickly, the suspense is killing me."

"This world is locked. Why have you come keybearer?" She asked, with a little trepidation.

"I am here to judge." Riku said, unsuprised that he had been found out.

The fairy nodding sagely.

"I see. You are he. Well then, I believe we can both help each other. I want you to seal this world closed. Last thing we need are heartless."

"And in exchange?"

"My sisters and I will teach you how to find the keyhole."

"One keyhole for influencing my decision? Trash. I'll find it some other way. I'm sure the kings know where it is."Riku said, "I should probably seal it open just for trying to influence my decision." Riku wasn't sure exactly why he felt that way, but he was sure that it was the right thing. If this job had been entrusted to him, he was damn sure he was going to do it right.

"Not just this keyhole. We will teach you how to find every keyhole on every world. How does that..."

"Done!" Riku replied. He hated the thought of traveling all over the worlds trying to find the keyholes.

"See you tomorrow for your training." Fauna said with a chuckle.

She turned and left, softly shutting the door behind her. Riku slept with difficulty that night. He was looking forward to tomorrow eagerly.

* * *

Riku woke up to a knock at his door. 

"Come in." He said slightly annoyed at having been woken up.

A servant entered carrying a tray containing toast, eggs, and a glass of milk.

"Breakfast my lord. And I urge you to eat quickly, the king wishes to see you."

A pinge of dread hit Riku, then passed just as quickly. There were few powers in all the worlds that rivaled his. He had no fear from a king. After all, he had killed one, two shouldn't be too hard.

Riku grabbed the toast, downed the water, and walked to his dresser. He put on his general's uniform and walked into the audience chamber. Riku took a knee, the king spoke.

"Riku, also known as Simba the Deathlord, you are hereby pardoned for the slaying of Queen Maleficent of Sachris." Stephan said.

"Thank you your majesty."

"That is all. You will rejoin your legion in six months time at Vast Pass."

"In such a case, I must apologize. I will be leaving your service in four months. It has been an honor to serve."

The king blinked in suprise. Soldiers who did well tended to stay in the military. He would be leaving after hardly a year's worth of time.

"Umm, yes, well, I thank you for your service. May I ask what you will be doing?"

"I am here for the keyhole, that is all you need to know."

The king again blinked in suprise. He had the distinct feeling that even though he was a king, and even though Riku was going through the motions acceptably, Riku did not seem to care much for his authority. Unsuprising, considering what he knew about people who messed around with the keyhole. It was also probably not a bad idea to be nice.

"You are dismissed. You may keep your room for four months time, then i wish you good luck on your journeys."

Riku rose, turned and left, and went down to the mess hall for lunch. As was usually the case with such matters, news of his retirement preceded him.

"Men." Juntor said, a mug in his hand. "Men, I tell to you, to those of you who do not know, our great general, our great warrior, our Deathlord, has retired." Groans and moans and sighs of sorrow greeted the announcement. "and here the man, no, here the legend himself is!" He indicated Riku, who had walked through the doorway.

"Simba!" The men shouted, still not accepting his name of Riku. "Simba, stay with us. Don't leave!"

Riku was extremely tempted to turn and walk right back out, but before he could finish his turn, he was grabbed and lifted towards the center of the room. He was placed on a table, and a mug was thrust into his hand.

"Oh dear." Riku thought.

"Speech! Speech! Speech!"

"Only after I get some food. I haven't had anything but a piece of toast all day."

"No no no." Juntor condescendingly, "Speech first, food is the reward."

"Fine." Riku said. "I **hate **speeches!" Riku thought. "What should I talk about. Battle strategies? No, not fiting for a retirement... Retirement, thats an interesting topic. Let's see where it goes."

"Men, normally I would get up here and impart some battle tactics, none of which you should ever attempt as none of you can do any of the cool stuff I can do. So, I will speak to you of the last military maneuver a man will perform. His retirement. Do not hesitate to hang up your sword. Find a patch of land, find a good plow, and you will have a good life. But never, ever neglect your training. For if all that stands between defeat and victory is you on your little farm, pull that sword down, and stand fast. Now, where's my lunch?"

No great cheers, no applause greeted his speech. Instead, the men looked at their mugs, and stood in somber thought. Juntor passed Riku his lunch. Riku wolfed it down, and ran to his room. He was only mildly surprised, but showed none of it, to find the three fairies in his room, standing in a triangular formation. With two chests placed behind them.

"First we need to determine your color. Please stand in the middle of us."

"Straight to business, I like that." Riku said.

Riku walked over. The second he crossed the midpoint of their triangle, all three said in unison, "Black." Merryweather went over to one of the two chests the had brought and out a white piece of clothing. With at a tap of her wand, it changed into a jet black color. Meanwhile, Fauna had gone over to the other chest and had pulled out four stones. She threw the green one to flora, the blue to Merryweather, the black to Riku and kept a red one for herself. The fairies then placed them just below the hollow of their necks. "Repeat what we do." Fauna said to Riku.

"Wait!" Merryweather cried, waving the cloth. Put this on!" Riku grabbed it and entered the changing room. A minute later he emerged. He was wearing long black pants, a sleeveless black shirt. His silver hair now reached mid-thigh, and it contrasted well with the matte black pants and shirt. He was still holding a long piece of cloth.

"Its a cloak." Flora intoned. The hood of it covered the top part of his face and the clasp was of the same black cloth, completely unreflective. The back of it completely covered his hair, making him a living black shadow.

"Sexy." Merryweather whispered to Fauna, and both had a nice chuckle. Riku pretended that he did not hear and asked Flora what to do next.

"Repeat after me. Potens cor est validus video vidi visum totus."

"Come again?." Riku said a little bewildered. He had never even heard such of such a language.

"Potens cor est validus video vidi visum totus."

"Potens cor est validus video vidi visum totus." Riku repeated, getting the hang of the syllables.

"Ego habeo potens cor."

"Ego habeo potens cor."

"Ostendo mihi vestri cor."

" Ostendo mihi vestri cor."

"Now all together."

"Potens cor est validus video vidi visum totus. Ego habeo potens cor. Ostendo mihi vestri cor."

Nothing happened. Riku said as much to Flora.

"I don't get it, he has the outfit, he has the magic, he has the stone, what are we missing?"

Merryweather suddenly got a very guilty look on her face, and walked over to the chest again. She pulled out a pair of black boots. "oops." She said.

Riku put on the boots, they were made of a soft leather, but had a hard sole and were black.

"Potens cor est validus video vidi visum totus. Ego habeo potens cor. Ostendo mihi vestri cor."

An image seared itself in Riku's mind. The battlefied where thousands had died. A keyhole of flowers, nourished by the blood of the fallen.

"That was cool."

"Now remember, you must be wearing that uniform and be wearing a black stone for the magic to work."

"Sweet. Question though, the magic I use is elemental, what kind of magic is this?"

"Stone Sorcery. It combines the use of a stone with the user's prime color, which is channeled through the clothing. For the record, Maleficent was green."

"And what was the language, what did it mean?"

"No one knows the language's name, but what it meant, we think is that means 'The stronge heart is able to see all. I have a strong heart. Show me your heart.' Stone sorcery is governed by three things. First you must declare a truth, then you must say something about yourself, then the command, and all three have to be logicly linked."

"Cool, thank you." The three fairies left, with fauna and Merryweather carrying the chests out. Riku blotted out his list, and stole a glance out the window. The training ground was full of recruits, and it would not be good to go and train with them, because one of them always thought of himself as great and then to prove a point Riku would trounce the boy so much that he was out of commision for months. And that, while good for training, was not good for an army, and so Stephan had "kindly requested" that he not practice near the recruits. So Riku went upstairs, all the way upstairs, to the roof of the castle.

Riku ran through his normal workout routine: 1000 thrusts, 1000 slashes, defensive operations, which was when one of the guards on the roof attacked him until Riku found the perfect opening and tapped the man's jugular with the keyblade, and magic attacks. However, this time, Riku was feeling different. Instead of just elemental magic, he practiced keyblade attacks. First a good ars arcanum for a warm up, then Ragnarok, another ars arcanum, then a strike raid. As the key sailed off into the distance, Riku had a flashback of his fight with Sora on the beach, and how Sora's keyblade acted like a boomerang. So, Riku summoned the keyblade and performed a strike raid, this time mentally ordering the blade to return. The blade turned a little, but it ended up falling far before it even got close to returning.

"How did Sora do that?" Riku thought to himself. He replayed the scene in his mind again.

_Sora, lying on his back, threw his arm forward, releasing the keyblade. Riku dodge the blade, then it hit him in the back.  
_

Riku repeated the attack again, this time throwing the blade with all his might. It turned a little more, but ended up flying beyond the castle roof, and Riku had to quickly summon the blade before it landed in the stable.

"If Sora can do it, I can do it, if Sora can do it I can do it."

* * *

_Two months later_

"How the hell did he do that!" Riku screamed. The practice ground again had recruits, so Riku had to go up to the castle roof again. The roof guards had already retreated below in fear, as Riku was now furious at his inability to master the move.

"Once more, lets see this once more."

_Sora, lying on his back threw his arm forward, releasing the keyblade._

"There had to be more, there had to!"

_Sora, lying on his back twisted his wrist, and threw his arm forward, uncoiling and snapping his wrist._

"Why did i not notice that before! Grah!"

Riku brought the blade up and twisted his wrist. He then launched the keyblade with everything he had, untwisting and snapping his wrist as he did so.

As soon as it had left his hand the keyblade started to turn on its own. With a little mental prodding, the keyblade came sailing back to Riku, who caught it effortlessly.

"Finally. I did it." Riku said, collapsing on the roof with exhaustion, a smirk played across his face.

_Two months later_

Emerging from the portal, Riku walked in the darkness of night, perfectly blending in with his cloak. He walked to the flower formation, and the keyblade again took hold of his body and brought itself high, then crashed down. There was a blinding light, and when it cleared the flower group had been broken and was unrecognizable.

Scanning the stars, Riku found another promising one, and disappeared through the portal.

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

A/N: Note to self, do not start a new chapter if you do not have the old one in front of you. I ended up giving Riku two sets of clothes, two pardons, and originally had him mastering the Strike Return (my name, but same rules as usual) last chapter, and he was halfway on his way to the Sachrian capital. So, i am extending this note to self to everyone. Don't do what i just did. Makes bad writing. And the language in reality is latin, though it will have significance later on. (I think).


	20. I'm not Lloyd

I must apologize, for i am about to introduce a gasp non-Disney world. It is not some harry potter trash, because its from a game, and its not a Final Fantasy game because then i would not be making this disclaimer now would I.

Additionally, as i will be introducing a completely different world i am going to have to assume that no one has every played this game (despite its remaining on the gamefaqs top 10 ps games) so i will be explaining details on a level not seen since you glanced at one of your dad's investment books. My apologize if you have already played Legend of the Dragoon. We will be starting at the beginning of Disc 3.

Disclaimer: I do not own Kingdom Hearts, i do not own Legend of the Dragoon. All characters belong to their respective owners.

**I'm not Lloyd!**

Riku stepped out of the portal. And fell six feet into the water. After a little swimming Riku made it to the bank of what looked to be a small town. He had apparently fallen in the river that was in the middle of said town. He looked around, and no one had noticed his arrival, they all seemed to be rushing towards the docks, and from what he could see, there was a huge ship, three times the size of Hook's vessel. He took his cloak off and wrung out most of the water, and put it back on, and started making his way to the docks. Since the town was small, there were only a few people who had interrupted their lives to see the passengers, so Riku was able to get a good front row standing spot. Six people and one...giant, jumped off the gangplank and onto the ground. A man in red armor was the last, and as he looked around, his eyes fell on Riku.

"Lloyd! I'm coming for you! I'll never forgive you for what you did to Lavitz!"

"Why does this always happen?" Riku thought, as the crowd scattered and the seven surrounded Riku.

"I'm not Lloyd. Leave me alone." Riku said, dejectedly, planar travel was draining.

"Shut up! No more tricks! No more lies! It all ends here!"

The man in red charged forward and swung his sword six times in a quick combo. First a cross-cut from up left to bottom right, then a reversal of that strike, then a repeat, then a leg sweep, followed by a cross cut from bottom left to top, then a skull crush.

"Madness Hero!" the man cried.

Riku barely had time to summon Betrayal and block the strikes. He countered with a stab, but the man jumped back just in time. Riku sensed a threat from behind and blocked high, as the giant with the ax swung once overhead, then spun his ax overhead and did a double slash with it.

"Inferno!" the giant grunted.

Riku was easily able to dodge the first, but the second nearly got him, as his arm was still ringing from the impact of the ax and he could only dodge. Again, he tried a swift thrust, but to no avail, for the giant had jumped back to his part of the circle. The next attack came from an old man. An initial punch, which Riku dodged, then three elbow blows, which Riku blocked with the keyblade, and then a rising kick, followed by a falling kick, Riku dodged the first and blocked the second.

"Five Ring Shattering!"

Finally learning, he cast a fireball at the man's chest as he jumped away, sending him out of commission.

"Not Haschel!" The blond with the green cape said. He started a spear combo, but now Riku's adrenaline had kicked in, so he grabbed the spear with his off hand and cut it in half with his keyblade. Before he could finish off the man, a small girl holding a HUGE hammer spun around him rapidly. He was forced to block with Betrayal, and that gave the guy enough time to jump out of the way.

"Hammer Spin!"

Another fireball was sent hurtling after the girl, but she dodged it. Riku didn't have much time to reflect, as two arrows came whistling at him from the brunette girl.

"Aeroga Reversal!" Riku said, and the arrows were sent flying back at the girl, who engulfed herself in a strange light and after emerging had wings. White wings with whispey webbing that didn't look like they could support her weight, but yet she was flying. The arrows were deflected by the new armor that the girl wore.

Riku didn't dodge the thrust from behind, mainly because he didn't see it coming it all. A little luck made it so that the blade only got his left shoulder, but still the wound hurt. It gave Riku enough time to turn and begin fighting his next opponent, a slender woman with a long thin blade and ebony hair. She withdrew the blade and slashed up, Riku countered by jumping back. She countered by stabbing forward again. He knocked her blade to his left, but that was what she wanted, because out of nowhere she slashed at his chest. Because of the way he had blocked her thrust, her blade clanged off of his, but she spun completely around, and stabbed at him again. Riku was unable to keep up with her movements, and found himself stabbed in the chest, but the blade banged off a rib. And yet the woman still was not through. She withdrew the blade and crouched, then jumped and spun, giving Riku a clean cut across the torso, but then she landed, and slashed across that same line again, and then as she jumped back, she gave him one parting slice across the neck, which Riku was somehow able to block despite the pain.

"Demon's Dance." The woman said unemotionally.

The man in the red armor walked over to Riku, who had now fallen due to the blood loss.

"Now Lloyd, you pay for your crimes."

"I've told you already, I'm not Lloyd!" Riku said, and cast a firaga at the man sending him flying back, though not harmed much. A curaga fixed his wounds, but there were still several fighters that could make life difficult. So, he decided to turn that several into none. He charged at the giant, swept its legs with betrayal and then slammed the blade into his gut. Withdrawing, he knocked the girl's hammer away from her, then kicked her hard in the gut. Without even a grunt, she went down. The flying woman launched arrow after arrow, but to no avail, he just kept reversing them, until one got lucky and hit her bowstring, cutting it.

The man in red and the woman faced him.

"Madness Hero!" Having already seen the attack once, Riku knew the perfect time to strike, waited for after the second strike, and threw a forceball right in the man's face.

"Demon's Dance!" The woman charged at him, and he decided to play with this one. Instead of jumping back from her thrust, he jumped forward, dodging her strike at the last minute, and looked into her eyes as he aimed the sword at her throat.

"I am not Lloyd. Leave me alone."

This woman then threw her arms to her sides, and was enveloped in a dark light, a small explosion of darkness forced Riku back. She emerged, and she too had wings, dark wings with black webbing and a new dark armor.

All Riku could think as he stood there facing her was that how nice she looked with the dark aura swirling around her.

She threw her sword at him, but since it was a bad throw, he ignored it, it went above his head.

"Astral Drain"

The sword stopped just above Riku's head, and started pulling back towards the woman. Instantly, Riku felt his energy being drained, but there was nothing he could do, in two seconds, he was completely drained, and from the looks of things, his energy had been used to heal the others.

The man in red lifted Riku up by the cloak, but Riku fell out of it, leaving the man holding an empty cloak. Riku's hair tumbled out as he collapsed.

"Thats not Lloyd is it Rose?" the man in the red armor said.

"Kongol, bring him along." the dark woman said, as her aura of darkness dispersed, her wings disappeared and she was in her original armor. "And Dart, next time, we should all just go dragoon immediately."

"I wanted to, but Shana was the only one with spirit left after our battle with the dragon."

"Fine, lets find an Inn."

* * *

Riku sprang out of bed and summoned Betrayal.

"Put that thing away." The man in the red armor said. Riku was laying in a bed, with the seven of them crowded around him.

"So who are you guys then, and who is this Lloyd person that has the mistake of looking like me?"

"I'm Dart." The man in the red armor said. He had a slight tan, and had d blond spiky hair and a sheath at his side, which was currently occupied with a broadsword.. He had tight black leather pants and leather boots, and his left arm had an armgard that stopped just short of his shoulder guard.

"I'm Shana. So sorry about the mix up." The brunette that had turned into the white...thing, said. She was wearing a white shirt with a short white skirt, and had her quiver and bow around her back. Her short brown hair framed her face well, and complimented her white skin.

"Kongol." The giant said. Riku's energy had healed him so much that there wasn't even a scar left. He was a good 8 feet tall at least, was dark skinned and had a short black Mohawk. His huge ax was strapped across his back. He had on brown shoulder guards, and on his wrists and ankles were tied animal skins. A little red warpaint parallel to his mohawk completed the outfit. Riku noticed then why his arm hurt after blocking the ax blade. The guy was ripped, utterly. He looked like he could bench press a hundred fat bandits, and maybe and earth titan thrown on top.

"I am King Albert, but please, call be Albert." The man with the green cape said. He had a long sleeved leather jerkin and leather pants, and tall leather boots. He had his long brown hair tied in a ponytail, and carried the remains of his spear in his hand.

"I am Haschel." The old man said, like Kongol, looking better after a dose of Riku's strength. He wore a purple sleeveless top and matching loose cloth pants. A red headband kept his shoulder length hair out of his eyesight, and his mustache had a sinister look to it.

"HI! I'm Meru!" The little girl squealed. Her outfit...or to be more accurate, her scant clothing, was a mix of blue and gold. The blue matched her hair perfectly, while the gold matched her hammer perfectly. Her bottom covered just the bare minimals, as did her top, but it had the advantage of a nice big bow tied in the back. Riku was mildly disturbed at seeing such a young looking girl in such skimpy clothing

"Rose." The dark woman had said, with a flick of her hand her ebony hair was swept back from her front revealing a long sleeved black leather blouse with a gold trim. She too had a short leather skirt, and her right leg had a leather covering that extended from her boot almost to mid-thigh, leaving an inch or two of skin showing. She had two what looked like ears, but where actually part of her headband, made of some black metal with gold trim, which started at her temple and went up a couple of inches from there. Riku was struck by her beauty.

"And this Lloyd guy?"

"Looks like you, but much shorter hair, and a darker face, and his sword is like living fire. Though I do have to say that yours is just as interesting. A giant key. Have never seen anything like it. If it wasn't for the fact that I had seen it in action, I would have thought it was a decorative sword." Rose said.

"Its one of two that I know to be in existence. The other my best friend has, though he is most likely on a beach enjoying the sunset with his wife now."

"Interesting. Well, I apologize to you for mine, and my comrades' actions. Here." Dart threw Riku a bag, containing by the feel of it, gold. "Consider that compensation money."

"Thanks." Riku shook his head as he left the room, taking his cloak, and reaching up to make sure his stone was still secure. It was. Riku stepped outside, put on the cloak, adjusted the stone, and chanted.  
"Potens cor est validus video vidi visum totus. Ego habeo potens cor. Ostendo mihi vestri cor."

Again, images surged into Riku's mind. A huge leaning crystal structure. A snow covered city.

"Thats not much to work with, i need a guide. Hey, I bet i could guilt trip those folks into telling where that place is." Riku mused.

He turned around and headed back into the inn. He looked upstairs, but there was no one there. He then decided to go downstairs, and there the seven of the them were talking with the man behind the counter.

"Here take it. Take it!" The man said. He handed over a piece of paper to Dart. "If you are the great heroes, please you need a boat to navigate Furni."

Dart sighed and took the paper. They all crowded onto three small boats. Three apiece to two of them, and kongol taking one for himself. "Hold on!" Riku shouted from the stairs.

"Dart, its time we left." Rose whispered.

"Let's hear what he has to say."

"Since you guys were so nice to me when we met, i was hoping that you guys could help me find a place. It has a huge crystal building in the middle of a snowy city. Know of it?"

"Of course we know of it!" Meru said. "Who doesn't know about Deningrad? Well, besides you. We are actually going there right now? Wanna join us?"

"Rose, remind me to throw Meru overboard the next time we go on a ship ok?" Dart whispered.

Rose nodded somberly, and if Dart hadn't known that Rose did not know the meaning of the word smile, he would have worried for Meru's safety, but he knew Rose, and she was being her normal, slightly depressing self.

"That works." Riku thought to himself. "Sure." He said. "I'll just umm, hang out back with Kongol."

The giant merely grunted when Riku got into the boat. The party made its way out of the inn, and towards the north. A quick detour at the weapons shop got Albert a new lance, this one absolutely terrifying to look at. The store owner called it the "Spear of Terror." and it was supposedly able to scare the enemies of it, due to magical enhancements as well as the morbid look of the weapon. A spear with that many sharp points sticking out of the blade was not going to be pleasant to the receiver. Unfortunately, the weapons dealer did not have anything for Shana, so she was out of fighting until something came up. The party exited the town, and started heading north into the forest. The first night of camping posed a lot of questions for Riku. He was, after all, a new source of entertainment for the party.

"So what are you looking for in Deningrad?" Dart asked.

"It's complicated, lets just say that I'm looking for a landmark."

"You are a wingly are you not?" Rose asked. Meru gasped.

"A what? Wingly? What is a wingly?"

"A wingly looks like a human, but they have wings of magic that allow them to fly, as well as possessing magical abilities. That fireball you hit Haschel with is a classic attack." Meru said.

"Meru. Since when did you get so knowledgeable about winglies?" Rose asked, a touch of accusation in her question.

"N n no place. I learned it from that Lenus girl that we killed. She was a wingly."

"Very well. You could be a wingly, you have the silver hair, and even if you don't know, your parents could have hid it from you."

"I'm sorry, but i don't think I'm a, what did you call it? Wingly. I'm not a wingly. The magic i use is just your basic elemental magic. Look." Riku then began a small magical demonstration on the fire, first freezing it with a blizzard, then reigniting it with a thunder spell, whipping the flames into a frenzy with aero, then creating a solid rock from the dirt, and reversing a gravity spell to suspend the rock over the flames.

"Where i come from thats what we use for magic. The floating trick is a little tough to learn, but you should see what happens when I reverse it. Not pretty, but effective. Makes meat great for searing."

Meru and Shana looked sick. Kongol and Rose nodded wisely, both of them had lived out in the wilderness before. Dart, Albert, and Haschel were unsettled by this, but Haschel saved the day by asking a new question.

"So, we haven't really seen any of your combos, can you care to show us?"

Dart, Albert, Kongol, and Rose all turned to Riku. Meru and Shana found this conversation turn not in their league and began discussing girl stuff.

"I don't have the elaborate combos that you guys have. I react in battle to my opponent's strikes and counter accordingly. Though i do have a nice trick I like, but thats about it."

"Come on, show us." Rose said, curiosity laced in her statement.

"Sure. The only problem is that its a guaranteed kill." Riku jumped back, just as an arrow landed where he had been standing. A dark elf charged at him from beyond the clearing of the forest. The group got up, but Riku waved them back.

"I can take care of myself against one archer thank you. I once killed a thousand in 10 seconds. But i think we just found ourself a volunteer for my little trick."

The elf took another arrow and aimed at Riku's chest. Riku charged forward, and sidestepped the loosed arrow. Because of the dodge, he lost his momentum, but that didn't really matter. He reversed his grip on the sword, and performed his teleportation strike, appearing back to back against the elf. Without a word Riku slammed the keyblade through the elf. The key exploded out of the maiden's chest, and as she grabbed at the key impaling her, Riku withdrew the keyblade, leaving her to gurgle on her own blood as she died.

"Impressive. Very impressive. I didn't even see you move." Rose said with admiration.

"Me not see." Kongol grunted.

Dart Albert and Haschel shook their heads.

"You couldn't see it even if i had done it slower. Its because I'm not moving in normal space, I'm actually teleporting."

"Yet another wingly ability. Meru, you wouldn't happen to know any good tests to see if someone is a wingly would you?" Rose asked.

"Wh who? Me? N n n n no."

"Its not a wingly ability. Well maybe it is, but the teleportation skill that i use is a power of darkness." Riku had remember Rose's dark aura, and figured that the people here weren't deathly afraid of the stuff if the semi-leader of a band of heroes was a darkness user.

"Really? I've been using darkness for quite some time, and never have learned or heard of that particular trick. I am guessing that that power you used on Dart, that ball of blackness, was another darkness ability?"

"You catch on quick. Speaking of cool tricks, what the heck was that thing you did when you got the black wings?"

Rose nodded, "That was called a dragoon. All seven of us are dragoons, I command darkness, Kongol earth, Shana light, Dart fire, which incidentally is why your fireball didn't quite work earlier, Meru water, Albert wind, and Haschel thunder. What we do is we transform into our dragoon aspects, using the sp, or spirit points, that we had gained from completing combos. For each strike in the combo, we gain sp, some combos give more, some less. For each Demon's Dance, I gain one hundred sp, which gives me the ability to transform for one attack, to a limit of 400 sp. Dart's Madness Hero gives him 85 sp per attack, to a limit of 300. Each 100 sp allows us to ues either one attack combo or one magic attack."

"Whats with the different limits?"

"The more sp we have gained over our lifetime the longer we can stay in dragoon form. I have been with my dragoon stone longer than anyone, so I have the most levels. Actually, thats not entirely true. Shana, over there, she can do so up to four levels as well, mainly because she gains a lot of sp per arrow, and she is quite fast with that bow...speaking of. Shana?"

Shana looked up from her conversation with Meru.

"Could you examine that elf body over there and grab its bow? I think it might be better than the one you are using."

Shana nodded, then walked over, and grabbed the bow out of the elf's cold dead hands. She also noticed the quiver, and pulled out the arrows.

"Hey! These are detonating Arrows! When I fire these, they explode and hurt all the enemies."

"Thats great Shana!" Dart said, Riku had noticed an interesting relationship so far between the two of them. It was in a state of flux from brother-sister to a more serious relationship.

"So back to combos and Dragoons." Rose said, "Any questions?"

"I thought only winglies cast magic around here. What the heck was that 'astral drain' thing you hit me with?"

"Thats not human magic, its dragon magic. We can only cast magic in our dragoon forms, though we have attack magic that is imprisoned in items, like this one." She threw him a bottle.

"That has the spell Gravity Grabber. Its an extremely powerful earth spell. If we face any particularly difficult wind creatures, we might use it. Or more likely Shana or Meru will use it, they are the stronger magic users among us."

"Great. Anyways, I'm getting tired, I have not slept in some time. Do you mind if I sleep?"

"Go ahead." Dart said.

After a few hours, Dart, Albert, and Rose had a little conference, once the others had fallen asleep too.

"I know he doesn't look like Lloyd, but he most definetly has magic, and the only humanoids that have straight up magic are winglies. He could be working for Lloyd." Dart said.

"I don't know. An agent of Lloyd would have to be a pretty bad agent to get himself attacked on sight. As we've seen from Lenus, Lloyd doesn't have bad agents. However, his complete ignorance of winglies and of Deningrad and of Dragoons is suspicious. What do you think Rose?" Albert said.

"I doubt that he's an agent, with a move like that he could have killed whoever he wanted, and probably all of us very rapidly. So I doubt he an agent of Lloyd. I think I want to talk to him. Get to know him. Regardless of anything else, he is probably the most interesting thing that has happened to this group in a while."She said.

"And the first dark user I have come across with that much skill.' She continued in thought. " 'As fortune calls, so the dragoons do join together to combat evil.' We already have all seven dragoons. Unless there is another dragoon that I don't know about, its most likely he's here to replace me. But why hasn't it happened yet? That doesn't make much sense anyways though, I have been doing this job for eleven thousand years. Why should I be retired? Well, I'll talk to the man and see what is going on."

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

A/N: Again, I apologize for bringing in a crossover, but the way kingdom hearts is set up is that it begs to be crossovered with something. The individual worlds and the world barrier, it was meant to be crossed. Heck, even Disney is doing it, otherwise explain to me why KH2 has Pirates of the Carribean in it. Regardless, I'm the author, and I say so. Additionally, please visit my profile page to see a link to a drawing of Riku courtesy of Rablagon. (Its really very good, shows him in the new clothes.)


	21. Testing One Two Three Testing

A/N: Yes I left out the Teo and the wolf quest, it adds another layer of complexity that I don't want to deal with. And yes I left out the Shana and the moon thing, but if they never went to the mayor's house, why would I have the Shana and the moon thing?

Disclaimer: I do not own Kingdom Hearts or Legend of the Dragoon, and all characters belong to their respective owners.

**Testing One Two Three** **Testing**

The next day the group continued on through the maze that was the evergreen forest. Dart was leading the group, with Shana just behind him, and Meru taking third. Haschel and Albert walked together in fourth, watching the group's flanks for an ambush. Kongol was next, Riku, and finally Rose, watching the rear.

"Riku, come talk to me." Rose ordered.

Riku walked a little slower so he would fall in place next to her.

"Whats on your mind?" Riku asked.

"You aren't very old are you?" She asked.

This caught Riku off guard. He had actually forced himself to forget his birthday on the last world, as he had seen more than a few of the men's birthday's where the "birthday boy" drank so much that he spent the next week sick. So, that made him nineteen now. But he was among a group that looked to be in their late twenties. Not wanting to be treated like the baby, and knowing that his lying skills were still shaky, he opted to turn the tables.

"Well, how old are you exactly Rose?" Riku shot back with a sneer. This visibly shook Rose, no one had ever asked her what her age was, and she never was good at lying, just half truths. But a simple solution presented itself.

"I withdraw my question. You have to be pretty young not to know that asking a woman her age is never a smart thing." Rose said, emotionlessly.

"You still haven't answered my question." Riku said, but Rose was already ready.

"A woman never has to reveal her age if she chooses not to. But anyway, lets move on to more important topics. Your darkness. Dart is a man of fire. Fire attacks against him do only half as much as they would against me or Albert. Water attacks against him do twice as much as they would against Shana or Haschel. Which leads to my question. It is undoubted that you use darkness. Yet why were you so hurt by my astral drain. Its powerful yes, but its practically useless against people or things of darkness."

"So then maybe I am a different element that uses darkness?"

"Exactly what I was thinking, so I was wondering if you would not mind subjecting yourself to a little test."

"What do I get out of it."

"My attention as a teacher of the Chidori School of sword combat."

"Explain yourself in clear terms."

"I will teach you my combos."  
This was interesting to Riku, always on the lookout for new ways to use the sword. "First, tell me how your combo system works, because I doubt you started with such a complicated move as Demon's Dance. That thing was amazing."

"Yes well first you have to master every single combo before you can even use Demon's Dance, let alone master it."

"So how many combos are there?"

"Just three others, along with Demon's Dance makes four. With your skill I believe you should be able to use More and More, the second one, by the time we get to Deningrad."

"Ok, explain to me the details of this test." Riku said, thinking that with the first two he could back-engineer Demon's Dance. Maybe even make his own.

"Sure thing, basically we will attack you with the elements to see which one doesn't hurt you that much."

"Thats going to be pleasant." Riku said, mentally worried for his health.

"Ambush from the left!" Albert said.

The group fanned out in a semi-circle facing the left.

"We've got guys from the back too. Riku and myself will take them. You guys have fun." Rose said.

Riku and Rose turned to face their opponents, two dark elves.

"Ok, now pay attention, I'm going to show you the first one, Whip Smack."

Rose charged the first dark elf, and stabbed, exactly the same to the opening to Demon's Dance, a hard thrust to the middle of the torso. She then swiftly withdrew the blade and slashed across from left to right.

"Whip Smack."

The elf took a knee, but was not dead yet.

"Riku, you finish it off with Whip Smack."

Riku charged forward and thrust, but he had charged too fast and was unable to withdraw the blade quickly enough to complete the combo. Regardless, the elf had taken too much damage and pitched forward into the dirt.

"You ran too fast, slow down. Take care and time your strike and speed correctly, now take down the other one."

Riku charged the other one. A successful impaling, and the curved tip of Betrayal allowed for an easy withdrawal, but he withdrew at the wrong angle, and the elf used this to jump to Riku's left, out of the range of a slash. She then charged him and gave him a falling ax kick, similar to the one that Haschel had used to finish that five ring move. Riku took the full brunt of it on his left shoulder, feeling like something had dislocated. Riku again charged the now shorter distance, and with perfect timing and perfect momentum stabbed, withdrew, and slashed.

"Whip Smack." Riku said. Followed by unsummoning his keyblade and shoving his shoulder back into place. He had seen it done enough times in the infirmary to know how to do it. A quick cure and the damage was healed.

"Acceptable. You did the move right, but left out the core of it. I'll explain later. Let's rejoin the others."

The group continued on. A roar from the front attracted everyone's attention. In the clearing ahead was wounded bear. And it looked pissed.

"Same tactics guys. Surround and kill. First attack to me, then in dragoon level." Dart said.

"What's dragoon level?" Riku whispered as they fanned out.

"Every one hundred sp is a level. We call them dragoon levels." Rose replied.

"Not exactly." Rose said louder, as the group moved in. "Riku is taking my place. I've already perfected all my attacks. I'll let you guys have fun for a while. It's been a while since I could relax in a battle. If things go bad I'll pitch in, but until then get killing."

Riku shrugged. He was getting rather sick of these tests, but any chance to improve himself was not to be missed.

"Right, so Riku has a Dragoon level of zero. You follow Kongol."

"Got it."

By now the group had surrounded the bear, and Rose had jumped into a tree for a better view of the fun.

Dart charged.

"Madness Hero!"

Shana released one of her arrows. It hit the bear square in the chest, then exploded, knocking it down.

Albert failed to complete whatever combo he was working on. He got to the fifth hit, then just had to jump back due to an overbalance. He had just recently acquired this, his fifth combo, and was still working the kinks out of it.

"Five Ring Shattering!"

"Hammer Spin!"

"Inferno!" Kongol said.

Riku waited till the giant had started his leap back before charging. The bear was now bleeding in several places. Riku planted his left foot, and put everything he had into the thrust. Just as his arm fully extended, he pulled it back, using the natural bounce to withdraw the blade. However, he had under corrected for the bounce and the sword was too high. Riku tried the attack anyway, and was knocked away by one of the bear's claws before the attack could connect. Riku was slammed into a tree.

Dart again began Madness Hero, and with the final blow, the beast's head was split in two.

Shana rushed over to Riku, and pulled out a healing potion.

"No. I'm fine." Riku said, and cast a quick cura on himself. The bruising from the attack as well as the punctured stomach were healed right before Shana's eyes.

"Well then, no more potions for you." She said, and stormed off.

"What's her problem?" Riku asked to Albert.

"She likes being mother hen to all of us. You were the first person to refuse her aide, and she took it to heart." Albert replied.

"Women. Never will understand them." Riku bemoaned.

Rose knocked her hair back, and jumped down. "What went wrong?"

"It was my fault. I have been trying to do this damn blossom storm for a a week now, and still nothing. It's just too fast for me." Albert said.

"And you Riku?"

"That bounce is tough to predict sometimes."

"That 'bounce' is the basis for the Chidori school. I was surprised you figured it out so quickly, but thats useful. It means that I won't have to teach you from the beginning. You have great talent in discovering the core so quickly. However, if you fail to master the bounce, then you will be as good at it as Dart is with chopping vegetables."

Everyone else seemed to get a kick out of it, though Riku wondered what was the story behind Dart and the vegetables.

"So you are taking an apprentice Rose, how very unlike you." Haschel said.

"Hopefully he won't be too much of a hinderance."

"Everyone ready? We are moving on." Dart said, trying to change the topic.

The group again headed out, coming upon the base of a windy staircase.

"We camp here." Dart said.

Kongol, Albert, and Haschel helped get the tents set up, while Meru and Shana worked on building a fire. Riku, Rose and Dart, went off into the forest, looking for a meal.

After a few minutes of wandering, a crash behind them caused all three to turn, and there was another bear.

"Myself, Rose, Riku." Dart said, calling out the order as the three spread out to surround the bear. The bear charged at Dart first, clawing at his chest plate. His armor protected him a little, but there was some damage done. Dart swung his sword, and the bear retreated to the middle of the circle. He then charged.

"Madness Hero!"

Dart finished his combo and jumped back just as Rose began Demon's Dance. However, just as she did her third stab, the bear counter-attacked. Rose was caught of guard and was impaled on a claw.

Riku ran forward and stabbed the creature in the back. He used the bounce perfectly, and before the creature could even turn around, he had severed it's spinal cord.

"Whip Smack." Riku said.

The bear's legs gave out, allowing Rose to stab the bear through the bottom of it's jaw up through its skull. She then disengaged herself from the claws. She opened one of her pockets and removed a healing potion. But Riku stopped her and cast a curaga on her. The wound closed up, leaving exposed white flesh. Something in Riku stirred upon seeing it.

"Thats a very useful trick Riku, keep it around. It reminds me. Dart, Riku does not know what his element is. And I am sure that it is not Dark."

"But he used that darkness spell."

"Trust me, I've figured this out, he's not dark. So, could get get a test organized while Riku and I clean and carry dinner back?" She said, indicating the dead bear.

"Sure."

Riku lifted the beast's right arm, while Rose carried the left.

"So what did you learn?"

"That the bounce depends on how I start the stab. If I have it coming in at a slightly downward angle, the bounce pushes the blade just where it needs to be."

"Very good. Keep this up and I might get to show you More and More."

"Great. So who does the cooking?"

"Shana used to, but she burned everything. Now Kongol does it."

"Kongol?"

"As a gigantos living on your own, it was either cook well or starve."

"I see, but what is a gigantos?"

"Thats what he is. Don't tell me you haven't heard of a gigantos?"

Riku shook his head.

Rose sighed in exasperation.

"Gigantos were the 103rd species. They do not have great mental capacity, but as you can see, their physical capacity is quite great."

"Species?"

"What rock did you crawl out from under? Each specie was created in a certain order. Minitos the 104, gigantos the 103, humans the 106, dragons the 105, and winglies the 107."

"What was number 108?"

Rose was silent.

Riku took the hint and stopped talking until they got to camp. Kongol cleaned the animal, washing it in a nearby stream, and throwing the organs far from camp to distract scavengers, easily lifting the whole thing. He then cut the hide off of it, and threw it in a pile. He separated out the meat by where it was from, splitting it into two piles. Riku watched earnestly as the giant put the hides back over the second pile, that which was from the flanks and legs and shoulders. He then took the parts from the back and stomach and salted them, cut them into large steaks, then slapped them on a large metal slab that Meru had put over the fire. The steaks sizzled as soon as they hit the iron. After a few minutes, the giant flipped them using his ax. The side that was exposed was mouthwateringly browned, with a few specks of black for a nice crust. Another few minutes and he said, "Food done." Dart (being flame resistant...sort of) grabbed the steaks off of the metal and stacked them on Meru's upturned hammer. After a few minutes, they were cool enough for everyone else to touch, and so everyone grabbed one and began cutting and eating on what could be called plates, but they looked like they doubled as bowls too. Riku, not having a plate, grabbed his and used the flat part of the keyblade. After Kongol had finished his piece, he went back to his supplies and pulled out a giant sized pot. He moved the metal slab and put the pot in its place, suspended a few inches of the tops of the flame. He, Dart, and Haschel (who had already finished) began cutting the remaining meat that had been stored under the hide into small cubes. They spread these cubes over the still hot metal slab, turning them until they too had turned that lovely brown color all over. They were thrown in the pot, along with a lot of water and a small tub of red stuff that Riku couldn't make out, as well as a few random vegetables that had been found. The giganto stirred the pot, making sure that there was plenty of liquid, which had now turned a rust colored red. He then covered the pot and went down to the stream to wash his hands, meeting Dart and Haschel, who had already finished. When Kongol got back, Dart made an announcement.

"Rose has requested that Riku be tested to see what element he is. She has already sworn that he is not Dark, so Shana, I believe light is next.

"Ok Dart." She said with a smile. Riku had a feeling that their relationship was progressing rapidly. She closed her eyes for a few minutes, then blinding light engulfed her. When she emerged, she had the wispy white wings and matching white armor, and her bow had now been upgraded from a simple wooden thing to something that looked like it had come off of an animal.

"Now Riku, be absolutely still. This is going to hurt." She shot an arrow at Riku, hitting him in the right arm.

She was again bathed in light, and returned to her normal form.

"Heal yourself." She said. Riku didn't have to pull the arrow out before healing, it had gone right through it had been so powerful. It had hurt a lot. He cast a cura.

Shana shot another arrow at him. This one hit his left arm, and got stuck in the arm. Riku pulled it out and cast a cure.

"Now Riku, did the arrow from my dragoon state hurt twice as much as the arrow from the regular state, or did it hurt less?"

"Hurt twice as much."

"Well, he's not light."

"Next." Rose said.

"The next portion of the test will consist of Kongol throwing magic items on you. The reason it's Kongol is that his magic attacks can't really hurt much."

"Please continue with the test. I'd like to get this over as soon as possible."

Kongol nodded, and threw the first item.

A bunch of rocks started floating around Riku, and shot beams at him, then all four of the rocks crashed into him.

"Now compare that pain to the next one."

Kongol threw the second item.

A small tornado grew up out of the ground, its speed cutting into Riku, then it abruptly died.

"Hurt the same." Riku cast a cure, even though the damage was not great, he didn't want to get screwed by the next attack.

It was good that he did, as the next attack sent six icicles flying into him.

The next one was of course the opposite. A huge flame erupted at his feet, burning Riku's face and if it hadn't been for the icicle's water, it would have burned his clothes.

"Same." Riku cast a cura, that definetly was not pleasant.

"Haschel, do you have any plans to test for thunder, as there is no opposite?" Rose asked.

"Something like Shana's."

Haschel then charged forward and hit Riku with a strong left punch to his chest, then a right to his chest. Finally, he pulled back both his hands, charged up, and hit Riku with both. Riku fell down due to the impact.

"Ferry of Styx."

Riku shakily got up, but Haschel had already transformed into a dragoon. His armor changed from a Karate vest and pants to a purple organic looking armor. Haschel flexed his purple wispy wings, and took off. He then charged forward and punched, and then flew back up high, charged down again, punching the other side of Riku's chest. Then he flew back up and came down again, hitting Riku's chest again. He then flew straight up, and came crashing down on Riku's head with his legs just as if he was doing a giant back flip. He then flew away, charged up a blast of electrical energy, and fired it at Riku.

Riku was knocked back. And immediately cast a cura on himself.

"That hurt, but about equally, which is surprising considering how powerful that dragoon attack looked."

"Oh, I was holding back a lot on that attack. I was using the summon four gods combo, which is half as strong as the Ferry of Styx."

"So if he's not thunder, then I guess that means he's...what is he Rose?" Dart asked.

"Non-elemental." Rose said with a bit of curiosity. "While we as a group have not fought a non-elemental, I have done so in the past. Usually only powerful monsters and winglies are non-elemental. Yet again we come back to the winglies. Riku are you positive you are not a wingly?"

"I doubt it. I can't say for sure, but if we come across one, maybe they can tell."

"We'll do that." Rose said, "Meanwhile, just so you know, Non-elementals can use every sort of magic."

"So can I." Dart said.

"Yes you can, but can you say that your fire magic is not more powerful that your earth magic? And you know exactly how weak your water magic is. Non-elementals can use all magic without any disadvantages. So a non-elemental would cast a spell at about a midway point between your wind and your fire magic. Also, non-elementals have a resistance to all elements. This resistance is about the half-way point on your resistance to fire and say...light for example. Finally, I have heard a rumor, though I can't confirm it, that non-elementals do not have resistance to non-elemental spells." Rose said.

"What's a non-elemental spell?" Meru asked.

"Exactly. The last time I heard a non-elemental spell was used was during the Dragon Campaign by Melbu Frahma. So no one knows for sure."

"Um excuse me? The Dragon Campaign? Whats that?"

"I will tell it." Dart said, "The way that Minister Noish told it to me in Serdio, another country."

"It all started eleven thousand years ago."

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

My apologies, to all LoD fans who have stayed so far through the absolutely terrible descriptions of all of the combos, and to all the Riku fangirls that have just seen Riku completely abused. My apologies, but if you can figure out a way to have him tested without causing him pain, then I would recommend reviewing! And finally, I don't know why these chapters turn out so long, but I just keep writing and writing and then I check the page number and I'm already on page six, so I stop there. Next chapter, the Dragon Campaign. And, is Riku a wingly? (probably not, unless it helps me out, I wanted this world to be "just another world" not a homeworld for Riku, but if something works out...) Additionally, digital homeade caramel candies (one of my specialties) to the person who figures out the Chidori school AND why I used it (it should be pretty self evident if you've seen a Chidori.), and if you want I guess I could use you in the story somehow. I've invented enough names, might as well not have to invent more. However, be warned that named characters have a nasty habit of dying.


	22. Dragon Campaign

A/N: Still no word on the Chidori school, so please continue to review and guess at the reason why I named it that. (Come on I know you people watch Naruto.) And I want to extend a thank you to Quellesirel Peredhil for reviewing for me. It is so nice of her. Finally, if things in this fic look screwy, like a chapter or subchapter being repeated or or it seems like I skipped something, let me know, I have redone the beginning, making it more condensed and less spread out. Also, my apologies to all those who got the new chapter 21 email. In the process of reformatting the story, I uh, accidentally cut out the chapter where Riku gets the keyblade. So yeah, ignore that. Also, a note about the evergreen forest, for some reason, in the game all bears are "Wounded Bear". So I'm going to stick with that. Also, If you are playing Legend of the Dragoon, this chapter contains spoilers. As will probably all the future chapters. So I recommend beating Legend of the Dragoon before you continue reading, if you do not care for spoilers.

Disclaimer: I do not own Kingdom Hearts nor do I own Legend of the Dragoon.

* * *

**The Dragon Campaign**

"Eleven thousand years ago, winglies ruled the skies. Their armies ruled the other races, human, giganto, and even the minito. They forced these people to do their bidding, working as slaves to keep their cities running without them having to work. However, there was one specie that they could not defeat. The dragons were undefeatable, but they were not blessed with intellect and so were nothing more than a nuisance to the winglies. Then, one man, Diaz, organized the humans to work together with the dragons, creating the seven dragoons. The dragoons and their dragons, as well as the human armies of Diaz, were able to overthrow the winglies and create the world as you know it, the world of humans." Dart spoke, "Then there is another legend that begins at the same time. So far we think that they are connected. The legend of The Black Monster. The monster appears every 108 years, and destroys whole villages in its wake. '_Count 108 years since the Moon that Never Sets glows red, and the moon child shall give the world holy bliss_.' But what we actually get is the Black Monster. The Black Monster destroyed my hometown, Neet, and I went on a quest for vengeance."

"Did you get it?" Riku asked, knowing how powerful revenge can be.

"No, I still have not found the Black Monster."

Riku nodded.

"When we get to Deningrad, the great library there will probably have more information." Albert said.

"So how much further is it to Deningrad Dart?" Shana asked.

"We should be out of this forest by tomorrow, and then its a couple of days walk to Deningrad." Dart said.

"Cool." She replied.

The group dispersed around the camp, Rose went off to lean on a nearby tree, Dart sat with Shana by the campfire. Meru just started wandering around, while Haschel sat on a fallen log. Kongol went to tend to the stuff in the bowl. Riku followed.

"So what is this? How do you make it?" Riku asked.

"Chili. Tough meat and water and low heat. Spice helps flavor."

"I figured that already. What do you do with the meat?"

"Cut meat into small pieces. Sear until brown. Add to pot. Add water. Add seasoning. Boil. Cover and keep at a low temperature."

"Interesting, how long do you cook it?"

"Cook until done."

"Can you be more specific?" Riku asked.

"What you give for time?"

Riku shrugged, "Well I do know a recipe for making meat last just about forever."

"What recipe?"

"Jerky, doesn't take long to cook too."

Kongol nodded.

So Riku explained to Kongol the jerky recipe that he had learned from Timon, way back on Pride Rock.

"Lasts long time. Good." Kongol said.

"Great, now what about the cooking time?"

"When it takes 10 minute to boil away the water in a tablespoon from fire, then it take 6 hours to cook. More time mean less chew." Riku nodded.

"Some meat still left over. You make jerky?"

Riku shrugged his shoulders.

"Hey Rose, I'll take first watch ok?" Riku called over to rose, who was heading into the women's tent.

"Sure." she replied.

Kongol and Riku swiftly set about making the jerky. By the time they had finished and cleaned up, everyone else had gone to bed. Kongol went into the guy's tent and while Riku hopped onto the branch of nearby tree to begin the first watch.

* * *

A few hours later, and the smell from the 'chili' was getting really really good. Riku was sure that some animals had to have smelled it, and Riku could feel that one was getting close. 

"Hey Riku." Dart whispered, getting out of the tent.

"Shhhh, ." Riku pointed east.

"Lets go." Dart said, drawing his sword and following Riku.

About a quarter of a mile from camp, a wounded bear was sniffing around, trying to follow the scent of meat.

Dart pointed to Riku, then pointed to the right of the bear. Riku got the message and circled around. Dart charged into the beast.

He swung in a downward arch, but the beast had somehow caught him, and roared just before he struck, throwing off Dart's rhythm. The cut was true, but it was only a flesh wound, and Dart was unable to complete the combo. Riku charged the back of the bear, and stabbed, bounced his arm, and slashed.

"Whip smack."

The blade tore out through the bear's back, with bits of bone flying forth amid a stream of blood. The bear roared and turned to face Riku. It charged and brought both of its claws down upon Riku.

Or rather where Riku was. Riku was now back to back against the bewildered bear. A quick thrust and and the keyblade was through. But the bear was still not dead. So Riku crouched and then jumped with everything he had. A shower of bone and blood and gore followed in his wake, as the keyblade tore up through the beast's ribs, shattering them, and crushing his heart and lungs as it finally broke through the collarbone. The bear fell, finally dead.

"I am definetly keeping you around." Dart said. Wiping some of the blood off of himself.

"Lets let it rot, it will keep most of the scavengers away for the rest of the night. By tomorrow we will be long gone."

"Well, its your turn for watch anyway." Riku said. Because of the way the attack had progressed, he had always stayed higher than the blood spurt, due to the tremendous jump. So, he calmly unsummoned the keyblade and crawled into his bed.

"Shit that kid is powerful. I really really hope that he isn't working for Lloyd. I wonder if Rose is having any luck." Dart thought, as he sat by the fire.

* * *

After a quick breakfast of the "chili" and giving everyone some of the jerky to carry around, the group packed up the tents and headed up the stairs. After a quick walk, they were rapidly approaching the edge of the forest. Riku noticed that Meru was lagging behind, and just before the exit, she started sneaking off. 

"W--" Riku started

"Where are you going Meru?" Dart said sternly, cutting Riku off.

"Why are you hanging back?" Rose asked, a tinge of suspicion creaping into her voice.

"I I I'm just going to go see my family!" Meru said.

"Oh, is that it? Why didn't you say so?" Dart said with understanding.

"Because you didn't ask!" Meru blurted, as she stormed back the way that they had come from.

"I am going as well." Rose said. "Come Riku." She slid down the hill that they were on and jumped to a ledge on another hill. Riku teleported next to her.

"We'll catch up to you later." Rose said, as they headed off.

"Rose!" Dart called, but by then the two were gone.

* * *

"Where are we going?" Riku said, as he followed Rose east through the woods. 

"We are going to see a village I visited long ago."

"Well if thats the case it'll just go to Deningrad with the others. Unless there is something else...What was it called? That second attack in the series?"

"More and More, and I get the hint. I'll show you as we go along."

"So Rose, why are we visiting this village?"

"Visiting old memories."

"Three right?"

"Yes."

Three arrows came flying towards them.

Calmly and without passion, Rose grabbed an arrow out of the air, breaking it her grip.

"Aeroga Reversal." Riku muttered. The trick with Reversal, he had discovered, was that the winds couldn't go very fast because then the arrows just flew away from him, he had to slow them down considerably from the normal aero spell, so that the arrows would stay within the air current that swirled around him. This drastically reduced the defensive capabilities of the spell, but it did afford a great quantity of missile protection. Also, he had been perfecting the spell so that with a little mental control, the two remaining arrows spun around them and the arrows went through the two eyes of one of the dark elves, leaving the fletching just barely protruding.

The two ran towards the elves.

"Now watch." Rose ran toward the elf on the right, and did the initial stab and bounce, she then did a slash with a more upward angle than Whip Smack, while stepping forward, and then stepping forward again while stabbing. She then casually withdrew the blade, stepped back and stood perpendicular to the enemy, with her sword behind her.

"More and More" She said.

"Go." Rose told him.

Riku charged forward, stabbed, slashed, and stabbed again. But instead of doing the fancy back step, he kicked hard at the elf's chest, freeing Betrayal and sending the elf flying.

"More and More." He said.

"A wise man once told me," Riku continued, "that I needed to strip away the flash and flair of my attacks, no use getting killed because of not killing the enemy with brutal efficiency."

"True, though I must say that I happen to like flair."

"Women" Riku thought. "Though she does look nice when she does it."

"So where exactly are we going?"

"We are going to Neet. I need to see it again, without the fire and smoke."

The pair continued to move eastward, occasionally running across random monsters, but Riku was able to dispatch them. Finally, the came across the burnt out shell of a village called Neet.

Rose took her time exploring the ruins, stopping at certain places and staring at the snow covered remains of the buildings. Riku followed behind, giving her some space. The village was not large, barely a mile wide.

"There are others here." Riku said, noticing the tracks of what looked like five people, three of them either very heavy or wearing armor.

"I know."

They continued working their way towards the center of the village. There, a large stone stood. Three men in heavy armor stood guard, as a woman knelt by the statue, with a small girl standing next to her.

"Who is there?" the woman asked, as Riku and Rose slowly walked up to the group. The three men in armor quickly interjected themselves between the woman and Rose, who was leading.

"Who are you?" The main guard asked.

"Just another traveler." Rose retorted.

"Have you too come come to visit the graves of those who died at Neet?" the woman asked, cutting the guard off.

"I guess so." Rose said.

Rose then went in front of the stone, with Riku following behind. She knelt in front of the stone, giving Riku time to look it over. There were many names written on the stone. Zieg Feld, Claire Feld, Tigri Flane, Kane Thomas, Kelvin Uler, Lain Mela, and many others.

"And who are you?" The guard captain asked Riku.

"I am her pupil I guess." Riku said with a shrug.

"I am the second Sacred Sister Luanna." The woman said.

"I am the fifth Sacred Sister Setie." The little girl said.

"Sister Luanna was a survivor of Neet." Setie said, "And she is able to see people's aura's because she is blind."

"Really?" Riku said.

"This is true." Luanna said, "If you want I can read your aura."

"No thank you." Riku said tersely, he was not in the mood for someone to go hysterical after seeing what kind of demons he had in him. While he hadn't bee doing anything bad recently, he had yet to truly balance out anything that he had done in the past.

"We were just about to go to Denningrad." The knight leader said.

"Really? So are we. Would you allow us to join you? There are many monsters on the road. Two extra sword arms would be an asset to you."

"Are you a strong fighter Rose?" Sister Setie said.

Rose nodded.

"Its settled then, we go to Deningrad together." Sister Luanna said.

"Boy. Are you able to take the rear?" The captain said.

Riku nodded.

"Move out." The Captain ordered. The men formed a two column formation as the group left town, Rose followed behind them, then Sister Setie and Sister Luanna, with Riku taking rear.

"I must say something Riku." Sister Luanna said after the group had entered the Evergreen Woods. "When I offered to read your aura, you really did not have a choice in the matter. Its not that I am blind, its that I can only see auras. So it was more of a request to have me tell you what I saw."

"OK. So, since I don't have a choice anymore, what does my aura show."

"It is a very vibrant aura, with many dark streaks running through it. But at the core is a solid mass of green, with a few specks of brown. And there are occasional flashes of red."

"So what does that mean?"

"The vibrancy is how powerful you are, I have to say that you are extremely powerful. Streaks as dark as yours can only come through violence, and probably violence in the work of evil."

"And this core?"

"Green is usually associated with envy, but in this case I have to say that it is better defined as purpose. You seem to have a tangible sense of purpose. The brown is a sort of bitterness about that purpose."

"You have that right."

"The red is usually associated with attraction, and judging from how it reacts when you look at Rose, I think I have an idea as to who it is."

Riku had not yet taken that particular thought through to completion, so it caught him off guard. Since Merlin had warned him that there wasn't anyone for him, women had been the last thing on his mind. Living from day to day, practicing, women just never showed up in the picture. And yet somehow there was something about Rose that was...something. He couldn't quite explain it, even to himself. But it sounded like the Luanna was right.

"And what do you see in Rose?"

"Painfully bright. And streaks of blue and violet in a mess of blackness. Well, this is interesting. She also has a ball of green, though hers has many dots of yellow"

"Meaning?"

"That she is very powerful, and has done many terrible things in her life. She too has a purpose, though it causes her pain to continue to do it. She has much regret and sorrow."

"I wonder what it is?" Riku thought.

"Riku!" Rose ordered, "enemies in the front."

Riku nodded, and he and Rose went forward, while the knights fell back to protect the sisters. Two tall birds opposed them.

"While I do not think you have mastered More and More. In fact not even close. However, I will still teach you the last combo you can be taught."

Rose charged the bird on the right, stabbed, swung the blade out to the right, then slashed across the middle of the bird, and lowered the tip of the blade. She then lept high in the air, slashing across from the bottom left to the top right, and spun around midair. Leaning on the blade, she brought it down upon the right side of the monster. She then stabbed with her back to the monster, very similar to Riku's teleportation strike Spinning a final time, she turned around and slashed across.

"Hard blade." She said. The bird split apart into a dozen pieces in a shower of blood and bone and feathers.

Riku charged the other bird, and stabbed, bounced his sword and slashed upwards, then stabbed again.

"More and More." He said.

The bird, though injured, was still able to attack. It charged Rose and gave four lighting fast thrusts with its beak. Rose was unable to dodge the quick strikes, and got four deep stab wounds.

Riku felt himself surrounded by darkness. Again, the rage that he had felt in Kingdom Hearts overpowered his senses, and he flew towards the bird. With a quick strike he sent it up into the air, and following, and with a hundred quick cuts he cut the bird into a thousand pieces. The shower of blood and feathers that fell on him as he landed was glorious. Rose looked over at the boy with horror in her eyes.

"He's emanating so much power. I feel as if he alone could take down the Virage Embryo. That power seems to be the same as our stones...insanity. God help us should he become a dragoon." She thought.

Riku, still consumed in his rage, threw the keyblade as hard as he could. It hit a tree, and the trunk shattered, and the keyblade continued, hitting another tree. That too shattered, and a path opened up before them , as the trees fell among the forest.

Riku turned to the group and said tersely, "Lets go."

Rose picked herself up, and followed behind Riku, while the group followed behind them. Slowly, very slowly, control returned to Riku, as the rage within him let go.  
"What was that?" Riku thought, "It took control of me like a puppet and I couldn't even do anything. It can't come from Darkness, I conquered that. I use it, it doesn't use me. If thats true though, what was that?"

"Riku." Rose said. "Hold this." Rose handed him a dark stone. Riku grabbed it, and felt something small part of himself flow into the stone.

"How disappointing." Rose said, "I had expected it to choose you. Well, it looks like the Dark Dragon has decided that I am not unworthy yet. Thank you." She took the stone back from Riku, who was confused by what she said.

"What do you mean choose me?" Riku asked.

"Well, the dragoon spirit chooses its bearer. Lavitz got his stone from his father's best friend when he died, and Albert got his from Lavitz when he died. Haschel got his from King Doel when he died, and Meru got hers from Lenus when she died."

"But you are not dead."

"True, but I do not think that it is necessary for the current bearer to die for the stone to move on."  
"Why do you say that?"

"I've lived a long time, and I know much about the stones. Trust me."

"You sure know a lot for someone who acts 80 but looks 30. Just how old are you?"

"What did you do to my stone?" Rose asked

"Don't change the subject. You act as old as the worlds, yet look to be barely 30."

Rose sighed, she was caught. "I'll tell you, but two things. First you have to keep it a secret; especially from Dart. Second you have to tell me what you did to my stone."

"Done."

"I am eleven thousand and twenty nine years old."

* * *

A/N: Please review, and just another reminder, Riku's new clothes picture is available through my profile.

Beta/Note: Morning all of Jeff's readers, this is his amazingly fantastic Beta popping up to say hi and apologize for not having been able to attack the last few chapters. Happy reading! Also, writers live off reviews, it is always nice to know when someone reads your work, so drop a line ala review button about what you think (a/n: anonymous accepted too!), even if you just put a smiley or something. On that note, Jeff and I will use flames to make s'mores.  
Lady J


	23. The Black Monster

A/N: Again, this chapter contains MAJOR spoilers for Legend of the Dragoon. You have been warned. I have been receiving reports about how the combat is unfairly balanced and that the story gets boring if Riku just keeps kicking ass. As a reminder, this fic does not follow convention (mainly due to ignorance of convention), and as such do not expect Dragon Ball Z. However, I will admit that relatively soon, the combat balance will change. I will say no more.

One final note, just for clarification, Riku can teleport two ways. The first is where he grabs space and violently tears a hole through it. The second is where he performs the teleport strike, which does not involve the use of destroying space or any other such nonsense. Instead, he basically disappears and reappears. Just play KH. You'll understand.. And finally, Beta wanted me to stop goofing off and start writing details. So I will.

Beta Note: But what I meant was _relevant_ details, which you seem to skim.

Thanks to

Rablagon for his review, your concerns were addressed above.

Quellesirel Perendhil for providing the most constant encouragement. I appreciate it. And I suggest you stop reading if you don't want to spoil LoD.

Disclaimer: I do not own Kingdom Hearts, nor do I own Legend of the Dragoon. So no suing.

**The Black Monster**

Riku blinked, wide eyed. "_How_ old?" He asked, completely incredulous.

"Eleven thousand and twenty nine." Rose repeated. "Give or take a couple of years."

"And how did you.." He asked, gaining a small part of his composure back.

"This." Rose touched the golden choker around her neck. "There is a Wingly spell that causes the body to cease aging, and prevent death of sickness or old age."

"And how did you get a hold of such magic?"

"I work for Charle Frahma. She's one of the winglies that knows that the their time has passed, and so she lives with a group of them in Ulara in the Death Frontier."

"And this job?" He queried, crossing his arms over his chest.

Rose looked him straight in the eyes. "I am the Black Monster that Dart is trying to kill."

Riku's newly gained composure shattered. Dart had said that the black monster was pure evil, and that it had wasted numerous villages.

"Yes, I killed all those people, burned all those villages all for one thing. To kill the moon child." She said impassively.

She went on to tell him that the moon child was in reality the body of a child possessed by the soul of the Virage Embryo, the God of Destruction, also known as the 108th fruit of the great tree of life. The Winglies had split the soul and body of the god, and used the soul to charge increase their power. When the soul was released in the final battle, their floating cities fell from the sky. The soul then tried to reunite with its body. However the spirit needed to posses a mortal host to reach its body, the Moon that Never Sets.

"It is my job to kill the body that the soul has inhabited, as well as any who have seen the newborn, because they become evangelicals for the God, and that would make my life intolerably difficult. So they die, and the soul roams again. '_Count 108 years and the moon that never sets glows red, and the moon child will descend and give to the world a holy bliss_.' The 'holy bliss' is the bliss of oblivion." She said.

Riku nodded, understanding.

"Now, what did you do to my stone?" A slight tinge of accusation crept into her voice.

"I did nothing, consciously at least; I felt some part of me flow into it. I recommend testing it on something before we join up again with Dart and the group. It might have something to do with that rage thing I went through." Riku said, shrugging his shoulders.

"Fine. I'll go scout ahead. Let the others know."

Rose sprinted forward and soon disappeared in the forest.

Riku relayed that information to their companions.

_Meanwhile; _Dart, Shana, Haschel, Albert, and Kongol entered the gates of Deningrad. They headed to the library, of which Albert had been talking about for weeks, but the doors were locked. After securing themselves rooms in the inn, they started exploring the town. Leaving the great crystal Palace for last, the headed over to the weapons store where Dart and Kongol acquired new weapons. The next stop was the church. They entered, just as a service had ended. As they moved through the people filling out, Dart saw a picture of a great tree. As he examined it, the priest approached him.

"Would you like to hear about the great Tree of Life?" he asked.  
"Please." Dart replied, signaling the others to come over.

"The great tree of life. The creator Soa sowed a seed and from it grew a mighty tree. And fruits grew from the tree, each fruit containing a specie. And each specie was as Soa desired. 107 fruits were born from this tree, and when its labors were completed, the tree disappeared into the desert." The priest finished with a flair.

"We were wondering if we could learn more about the Dragon Campaign actually."

"Oh, well, go to the library. They have books about everything there." The priest said, and headed towards the back rooms.

"Wait! The library is locked." Albert called to the retreating figure hastily.

"It is? Oh yes, yes it is." The priest laughed, no one else did, "I locked it on my way out. I am the head librarian. Let my change my robes and I will accompany you there."

The group headed to the library. There the librarian introduced himself as the specialist on the Dragon Campaign. They learned no new information despite the fact that the library was four stories high. It seemed that there was indeed very little information left on the Dragon Campaign..

_Meanwhile_

Rose found herself surrounded by wounded bears; too far away from the group to call for backup, she activated her dragoon stone, and she felt herself bathed in darkness, although there seemed to be more power in it. When she emerged, she realized just how much power. Her wings were a good 6 feet longer than normal, and the armor thicker. She flew up and examined herself. She wondered exactly how much power she had gained. So, she cast her most powerful spell, the Dark Dragon. Dark Dragons are the most alien looking of the dragons. They have only one massive wing, and a small head and tail. On their bellies sits a huge straight blade. Normally, the spell would summon one Dragon, who would encapsulate the enemy with Darkness, then cut it with the blade. Instead of summoning one dragon, however, she summoned six. The dragons floated above the clearing, and began their humming. The bears rose in the air, as the space around them started to fill with Darkness like water. Finally, every bear was now contained in a shell of pure darkness. With a loud chorus of cries, the dragons charged forward, their underside cutting through the darkness. Rose descended in the middle of the corpses, and the dark light enveloped her. For some reason, she was rather pleased with her work, almost allowing herself to smile.

"Whats happening to me?" Rose thought panicking. "That power of insanity that Riku gave me is intense, it stayed with me even after I ceased being a dragoon."

"Rose!" Riku cried, running towards her, the sacred sisters and knights in tow. "Are you alright?"

"Whatever it is that you did to my stone, you gave it a rather extreme power boost." she said with a bit of shock.

"Glad you like it. Can we get to Deningrad already?" Riku nagged, sick to death of trees and bears and birds.

"We are where we left Dart. Its just a half day's jog and we will be there."

_Back in Deningrad_

"Do you have anything about a blade shaped like a key?" Albert asked, dying to learn at least something before the group left..

"A key? Hmmm, let me think. Yes it was...hmm" The librarian went over to a shelf muttering incomprehensibly to himself. He picked up a book, opened it, then set it down again. "No, it must have...", he said, and picked up another book. "Yes, yes, it was mentioned in the Dragon Campaign. There was the seven dragoons; Diaz; the army; and there one man, who held a blade shaped like a key. He arrived on a battlefied between humans and Winglies, and slew everyone, man and Winglie alike. The battlefield is not mentioned, but it must have been close, because it is said that he continued to Deningrad, the Birth City, as it was called at the time, and when the human army arrived, there was no life here at all. Everything was dead, men, women, and children, even the human, giganto, and minato slaves. He was seen at other times in the war, and he was once seen riding the Divine Dragon, of all things. Most scholars believe that he is a piece of propaganda in an effort by Diaz to inspire the troops. Why do you ask?"

"Divine Dragon, Minato?" Albert asked with confusion.

"The Divine Dragon is the king of dragons. He has seven eyes and seven wings, one for each type of dragon: water, fire, thunder, earth, wind, darkness, and light. He now sleeps to the north, at the Mountain of Mortal Dragon, sealed there by the Winglies. Minatos are the small people, about half the size of humans. They disappeared soon after the Dragon Campaign."

"Thank you." Albert bowed.

The priest waved to them, his question forgotten, "Good luck on your travels."

Sister Luanna and Rose with Riku and Sister Setie following behind approached the Crystal Palace in Deningrad. Riku had noticed the giant structure in the middle, but was very surprised to see what it was. It was a giant building, maybe ten stories high, made entirely of long thin crystals, the largest being about twenty feet tall and five feet wide.

"Rose!" Dart hailed from the steps of the library. Luanna turned to him and gasped.

"What is it?" Rose asked.

"I need to talk with him." the sacred sister ordered.

"Dart! We need to meet in the Inn." Rose called.

Dart nodded, and he and the group walked to the Inn. They started to file into the small lobby, but Kongol stopped, and said from outside, "Too many people, I wait here."

"I'm going with Kongol, its too crowded in here" Haschel commented as he left.

"Me too." Shana said.

Dart and Rose sat on one of the couches, and the Sisters sat on the couch opposing them. Riku leaned against a wall on the sister's side, while Albert did the same on Dart's side.

"You are not human." Luanna stated flatly.

After a moment of surprise, Dart replied, "I know. We are dragoons. Rose, and everyone else, we all are chosen by dragons. Except Riku. He was just traveling with us to get here. We nearly killed him when we met him, so this was compensation."

Riku remembered the event quite differently, with only two of them still standing before he was taken down by Rose's spell.

"That explains Rose's power. But you are different. There is something different affecting you. Different from the others. Much older, and much more dangerous."

_There will come a time when your mind will be tested. I wonder, how will you survive given the meagerness of your spirit?_

Dart suddenly remembered the words that Rose had told him on the ship as they sailed to Furni, and soon he knew why. He fell to the floor, both hands clutching his head as he was wracked with mental pain.

Dart cried out in pain, as he fell forward and started rolling on the floor.

_Elsewhere_

Seven large eyes opened. Long iron chains twisted, bent, and finally broke in a shower of metal. Seven wings spread and flapped. And so the beast was escaped.

A mere minute later, a farmer in his cart was driving his horse towards Furni from Deningrad. Suddenly a huge shadow appeared over him. He looked up, and saw the tail of a great winged thing fly past him towards Deningrad.

_In Deningrad_

The ground started shaking, and the windows in the inn broke. Overhead a dragon with seven wings and seven great eyes flew over the city, roaring. It circled a few times, the downdrafts from his wings shattering glass and destroying roadside stands, then with a final roar, departed where it came from.

Dart, with heavy, labored breathing, released his head, and crawled back up on the couch. "What was that?" He asked.

"That was the Divine Dragon. He was sealed by the Winglies over 11,000 years ago in the Mountain of Mortal Dragon. I wonder how he could have been awakened?" Rose asked.

"We must tell the queen immediately." Sister Setie said. Sister Luanna nodded in agreement.

"Take us to her." Dart commanded, standing up.

As they were headed out of the Inn, Meru showed up.  
"Guys! The Divine Dragon is awake! He's coming for Deningrad!" She shrieked.

"We know. He came, he saw, he left." Haschel replied calmly.

"Oh. Then why are you so calm? Nevemind. Stupid martial art inner peace crap." Meru sneered as she kicked the ground, and joined with the rest of the group.

Sister Luanna, led by Sister Setie, led the group up to the Crystal Palace. The palace itself was made entirely of huge, shiny crystals. Just at the entrace, Riku found what he was looking for. In the crystals themselves, a keyhole design was just barely visible.

When they entered the palace, Riku was impressed by the building structure and the way that it seemed to have been formed from pure, clear crystals. As they walked up the many staircases, Riku noticed that the stairs themselves had been carved from the crystal but very crudely; especially when compared to the ceilings and walls, which seemed to have been grown to fit perfectly. The group proceeded up through the main passageway to the Queen's Chamber.

"You saw how powerful that thing was! You want me to order men to their deaths in a frontal assault against _that _thing? Get out of my sight, First Captain of the Guard!" A blonde haired woman in white screamed to a man in armor. The man stood and retreated to the side wall opposite Miranda.

"Mirranda, calm down." A woman on the throne ordered. Miranda moved to the side when Sister Luanna and Dart's party entered the throne room.

"Queen Theresa." Sister Luanna said, bowing, "These people claim they can kill the dragon." The group entered, Riku leaned back against the doorway of the entrance, and the rest of the group stood in the center, with Dart at the fore.

"Really? And how can you do it?" Sister Miranda sneered from the side.

"We are the dragon knights, the dragoons, and we can take him down." Dart said, punching his hand for emphasis.

"Sister Luanna? Is what they say true? Are they really the dragoons of legend?" The queen asked, getting up from her throne.

"Yes my queen, they are. I had one of them as a guardian on my journey back from Neet. If her power is any indication, the dragon stands no chance." Luanna replied.

"How do we even know if it will come back? It didn't even attack." The First Captain of the Guard said. Miranda glared at him and he shrinked back in fear.

"As it flew overhead, I saw the blackest, most hateful aura in it. It will return, and destroy everything." Sister Luanna shuddered.

"So you will go now and slay the dragon?" The Queen asked.

"Two items were used to defeat and seal the drgaon. The first was the Dragon Buster, which is in the hands of our enemy. The second was the Dragon Block Staff." Rose announced.

"How do you know about the Dragon Block Staff?" Meru asked, bewildered.

Rose cocked her head to the side. "How do you know about it, Meru?" She asked.

"I uh, umm...aww fuck this. In the Forest of the Winglies, they have the Dragon Block Staff." She said, dejectedly, crossing her arms and kicking the ground..

"Can you take us there?" Dart asked. She nodded, kicking the ground again.

"Then your majesty, we are off to retreive this staff so that we can destroy the dragon." Albert said with a bow.

"Not alone you aren't." Miranda said, almost running in front of the dais and taking a knee. She looked up, "Your majesty. I ask your permission to join the dragoons."

The queen thought for a minute, the room was silent, "Very well Miranda, you may go as well. I hope that is not a problem with you Dart?"

Dart was surprised, but shrugged his shoulders. People had been joining this group for a while now, one more couldn't hurt. "Why not? As long as you can fight, you can come." Miranda left the steps and walked over to stand behind Haschel.

"Fare well, Dart and companions." The queen stated, sitting back down.

Dart bowed, and left. Riku followed, as did the rest of the group, with Miranda in tow. Halfway down the main hallway, Meru noticed something wrong.

"Where is Shana?" She asked.

Dart looked around franticly, then ran back up to the Queens room. Riku managed to keep up, while the rest of the group started heading back as well.

"Have you seen Shana?" Dart asked the guard, slightly panting.

"Yes, she went into the Seal room." The guard stated, and pointed to a door along the wall.

Dart ran over and opened the door. Riku followed to find Dart standing a few feet from Shana on a small platform, which overlooked a glowing stone suspended in midair with three great pylons nearly touching it.

"Shana?" Dart called, "Shana come here." Dart called to Shana, as she stood near the edge of the platform, her attention completely focused on the stone.

She turned to him. Miranda and Albert entered the small room as well

"Dart?" She asked, struggling to pronounce each letter. Then with a cry, she fell to the ground, and her dragoon spirit flew up in the air. It came down gently upon Miranda.

"What is this?" She asked.

"The White Silver Dragon has chosen you as its bearer. It is..." Albert said.

"Shana! Shana! Wake up Shana!" Dart screamed, cutting off Albert. He picked her up, and carried her back into the throne room.

"Is there a spare room available?" Dart asked.

"Yes, down the stairs, first right." The guard said, clearly worried about the girl.

* * *

"I'm fine Dart, really." Shana said for the tenth time, as she lay in bed, with everyone in the rather large bedroom. 

"Are you sure you are ok? Are you sure you don't want to join us?" He asked again.

"Without the spirit, I wasn't that good a fighter anyway Dart. I'll be fine, you go on. Please, do it for me." She pleaded tenderly.

Dart sighed, then he nodded and headed out the door. The rest of the group followed. They wasted little time in the city, headed straight out the gates, towards the Evergreen Forest. Meru lead the group towards the Forest of the Winglies.

"Miranda, what was that room?" Albert asked the blonde, "The one where Shana collapsed and had that odd glowing ball."

"That is called the seal room. We are not sure exactly what it is for, but believe that the orb is used to seal something of great power."

"What thing would that be?" Albert's inquisitive mind always desired answers.

"We don't know, whatever it seals, it sure isn't the Divine Dragon." Miranda said sarcastically, then started walking faster.

By this time they had reached the staircase in the forest, they walked down the long windy road, then headed east.

"Riku!" Dart called from the front of the group. Riku had hung out towards the back of the group with Kongol. Kongol didn't make conversation, thus it was Riku's favorite place to be in the group. Heading the call though, Riku quickened his pace and caught up to Dart. He waited in silence for Dart to continue.

Finally getting the clue, Dart spoke, "Why are you with us? You came with us to get to Deningrad. We got there. Why stay with us when we left?"

Riku had already thought it through upon reaching Deningrad, "I just needed to see the place. I'm not actually needed there for another eleven months. Until then, i'll stick with you guys. You all are interesting." When the year was up, he'd teleport in and seal this world's fate at the entrance to the Crystal Palace.

Dart started laughing. "That's the exact same reason that Rose has of sticking with us."

"If he only knew what she was." Riku thought to himself, shaking his head and making his way to the back of the group.

Suddenly animal cries came from all around them.

"Split up!" Dart shouted, grabbing Meru and Haschel and heading off in one direction, while Kongol and Albert went another way. That left Miranda and Rose and Riku staring down two wounded bears.

"Riku, you take the one on the left, I'm going to show Miranda how to use the dragoon power."

Riku nodded, and charged the bear. He stabbed, slashed, and stabbed again.

"More and More." He then kicked hard on the impaled bear, sending it tumbling back. Not giving it a chance to retaliate, Riku charged after it, stabbed, slashed from the right this time, spun around and jumped, slashing the blade through the bears arm, severing it, he then landed with the blade hitting the bear's now bleeding shoulder. He did a half spin, and stabbed behind himself, then completed the spin with a slash across the bear's neck, decapitating it.

"Hard blade." Riku took a quick look over to the girls, and saw Rose again in her darkness armor. Again a pang of something twitched in him, but he ignored it. An arrow came flying from behind Rose and landed in the bear's chest, then exploded, sending bear parts flying all over the forest. Riku walked towards them, and got a glimpse of Miranda in the same armor that Shana had worn, just before she returned to her normal self in a flash of white light. A second later, Rose followed suite.

"Miranda, do you understand now?" Rose asked.

"Yeah."

"Good. Now a word about magic. The white silver dragon is more of a healing dragon, so most of your spells are healing in nature."

"I get magic out of this? Kick ass!" Miranda yelled.

Rose shook her head, as the rest of the group showed up. It seemed that no one had taken much damage.

"Lets keep going." Dart said.

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>.

A/N: (holds out hat) reviews please.

B/N: Humor him, it makes my life easier


	24. Old Things, Very Old Things

A/N: Once again, spoilers for Legend of the Dragoon. Also, a policy change is reflected in the following chapters. That policy is that no chapter shall exceed 11 pages of text. (appx. 6K words) The old policy of six page limit was just not working. Further policy changes are not anticipated. And as a reminder, i said approximately every month.

Disclaimer: I do not own Kingdom Hearts or Legend of the Dragoon, all characters belong to their respective owners.

**Old Things. Very Old Things.**

"Meru, this is a dead end." Dart said, as they stood in the middle of the forest path. The path that they had been following had stopped in front of a large tangle of woods with vines and large trunks obstructing the way.

"Guys, I have something to confess." Meru admitted in a dejected tone, turning to face the group.

"What is it?" Albert inquired

Instead of speaking, Meru closed her eyes; With a small flash, wispy white wings grew from her back. Riku noticed that they looked very much like his aero spell concentrated into a form. She floated in the air; and green light emitted from her palm. In a much larger flash of light, the dead end disappeared to reveal a greenish portal of some sort.

"You are a Winglie. I had thought as much." Rose declared, her voice emotionless.

"I'm still the same Meru though!" she sparkled, her peppiness returning.

"We know Meru. This was where you saw your parents again, wasn't it?" Albert asked.

"Yup!"

"I hope we get to meet them!" Shana bubbled excitedly.

"Well, see, uh, I'm not exactly allowed back." Meru said slowly, sadness seeping back into her voice. "I, sorta, left the village; and if you do that then you are forever banned from returning"

"We are here for the Dragon Block Staff. If they try to stop us, any of us, we will break through." Dart said and walked through the portal, his hand on the hild of his sword.

Meru's wings dissipated as she lowered to the ground. With the rest of the group following, she walked through the portal.

On the other side was Dart, looking at a forest that was completely different from the one they had been in previously; the trees here were grown with purpose, being well spaced and beautifully arranged; and seemed to be more alive and looked like they had been well tended.

However, not a minute after the group was through, three Winglies flew towards them; they had silver hair, wore plain grey robes with red sashes and in their palms hovered large balls of what looked, to Riku, like fire. In response, Riku created a forceball in his palm, ready to throw should a battle take place.

"Halt!" Their leader called to them.

Dart called to them "We are here to obtain the Dragon Block Staff so that we may slay the Divine Dragon."

"Meru! You not only lead them here, but you tell them of our most sacred artifact?" the Winglie asked incredulously, "You shall die for this!" he raised his hand to throw the fireball.

"Stop!" A commanding voice from behind the group said. Another Winglie, dressed in a grey robe as well, but with a blue sash approached. "The elder wishes to see them. They are not to be harmed."

"Impossible! We have been taught by the Old Ones for generations that no Fallen is to be left alive. You not only defy this, but allow humans and a giganto!" he exclaimed, "However" his tone took a much deeper, sadder tone, "you speak the words of the ancestor. Very well, you may pass."

The three Winglies flew off towards the entrance.

"Much thanks Guahara." Meru said gleefully, running to him.

"You must hurry; the elder is waiting for you." He replied, returning her hug.

Dart nodded and the group started off through the forest of the Winglies.

* * *

After about half an hour of walking, being carried by Winglies and being teleported, the group arrived at the residence of the elder.

The room was unadorned, save for a large circle of gemstone in the middle of the room and a chair at the far end. The chair was occupied with the aged form of a Winglie ancestor.

"Welcome. We do not have much time, so I will tell you what you need to know. I will use my magic to transport you to the Forbidden land; that is where we have hidden the Dragon Block Staff. You must go and retrieve it with haste. The circle will heal you of any damage and restore you if you are tired. After, you will use the staff against the Divine Dragon and hopefully defeat it." One of the walls spun around, revealing a space. "This elevator will transport you to the sending platform. Please hurry." Concluding, the ancestor vanished.

"Well hello to you too." Haschel said with a laugh.

The party arrived to find a large platform with stairs leading up to it. Dart led the party to the platform and the ancestor appeared.

"I wish you haste." he said.

After a brief moment of concentration, Riku felt the distinct feeling of being in two places at once, and then he was no longer in the forest, but a huge ruined city stretching almost a mile into the sky.

* * *

After a day and a half of wandering through the city, the party finally found a staff sticking out of the ceiling.

"That's it! That's the Dragon Block Staff!" Meru jumped gleefully.

"Yes, but how do we get it down?" Rose asked.

Meru pointed a thumb at herself and, using her wings, flew up and grabbed at it. She pulled and pulled, and finally not just the staff, but a huge rock attached to it. The rock righted itself, and revealed a snarling face and then started attacking.

"Don't transform!" Rose warned, "It has the Dragon Block Staff; if we transform, it will probably activate the staff. If that staff activates, our dragoon forms will completely useless."

Everyone nodded and surrounded the rock.

* * *

With a final strike from Dart's sword, the rock shattered, leaving the Dragon Block Staff to clang on the ground.

"Lets move on, we need to hurry." Dart said, picking up the staff, a straight and light hued wooden staff with a large green crystal on the top.

The group continued in the direction they had gone; and found themselves at a hidden platform very near to the entrance of the city. Meru sighed and activated her wings. She picked Dart up and started the task of ferrying everyone over. With only Rose and Riku left, Riku, his patience finally given out, grabbed Rose and tore a hole through space and reappeared on the opposite side of the group with Rose.

"Riku, you are as full of surprises as I am." Rose said to him, her emotions completely masked.

Somehow, grabbing Rose coupled with her admission of amazement in him caused Riku to freeze up. A little voice in his head screamed at him "Stop!" and then he found himself moving again. Riku shook his head, as the group walked up to them.

"Do you have any other tricks you would like to inform us of?" Dart asked.

Riku smiled inwardly and merely shrugged his shoulders attempting to look innocent.

"Come on!" Miranda shouted at them, having run ahead of the group. "We have to save Deningrad! Let's Go!"

The group arrived at the spot where they had been teleported to, and found themselves enveloped by a green light. This was followed by the odd sensation of being in two places at once, and then finally, they reappeared at the platform.

_Meanwhile_

The Divine Dragon had arrived at Deningrad. From his chest, large balls of light, about the size of heads, shot forth in to the city, and crashed through buildings. After strafing the city a second time, the dragon landed on a nearby cliff, and raised his head high. A thin beam of blue beam of light emanated from the eye at the center of his head, and then disappeared. A blue energy stream went racing down his neck, and entered into what looked like a cannon mounted on his right shoulder. The cannon was filled with blue light, and then suddenly it was released, a large blue beam of energy aimed straight for the Crystal Palace.

_Back on the platform_

"You must hurry!" The Ancestor cried. "The dragon attacks!"

The ancestor concentrated, and a green light enveloped them, but then swiftly dissipated.

"I'm sorry, let me try again."

Riku just shook his head, and sticking his hand out, he pulled a hole in the world.

"Go through, quickly." He ordered, motioning towards the portal of inky blackness.

Miranda ran through, followed by the rest of the group.

Riku looked over at the Ancestor.

"I have some questions for you later." He said and then walked through the portal.

"A man that tears holes in the very fabric of space itself. A good thing he wishes to speak with me." The ancestor said. "I need to pray to the Goddess for guidance on this."

_In Denningrad_

"Shana? What is wrong?" Queen Theresa asked, as Shana stumbled into the throne room in a zombie-like state.

Suddenly, a bright light engulfed them.

Riku stepped out of the portal, just as the dragon disappeared from view as it left the city. Riku sank to one knee. He felt extremely tired and much of his magic reserves were gone. On the upside, he felt that he had learned more about his dark powers. It wasn't the distance that cost a lot of magic power, instead it was how much material went through it. Transporting 6 other people and that giant had really taken a lot out of him.

He looked back towards the city, just in time to see a large chunk of the Crystal Palace fall away and crash into the nearby buildings.

"Queen Theresa!" Miranda screamed in horror as she dashed towards the palace.

Dart and the others attempted to follow behind her but she quickly outpaced them; The Palace was a mess: Crystals were strewn all over the ground and all the guards were down on the ground, some of them bleeding.

They started climbing the stairs and reached the path that lead to Shana's room. In the middle was a guard, with one large crystal piecing his abdomen and another through his throat. Meru turned away; sobbing. Dart lifted his head to look beyond, but there was just open sky. Shana's room was no more.

"I bet she's in the throne room. Yes of course that's where she is." Dart muttered to himself franticly as he raced up to the throne room.

The others followed. At the throne room was a large bright light blue light. As Dart entered, the light began to subside, revealing Sister Luanna, Queen Theresa and Shana.

"Oh thank Soa!" Both Dart and Miranda cried.

Queen Theresa told them that Shana had come into the room and how then a strange light appeared.

"We have to stop him. We have to prevent this from happening again. My Queen, we are off to the Mountain of Mortal Dragon to kill the bastard." Miranda said, her fists shaking in anger.

"What was that light?" Queen Theresa asked.

"At times of danger, thrice now has Shana been able to protect herself by exuding a bright light. We do not know what it is." Rose said.

Miranda was already at the door. "Come on people!" she rallied "We have a _dragon _to slay!"

After visiting the inn to rest and heal themselves after their battles, the group headed towards the Mountain of Mortal Dragon.

"Riku" Rose said, as they were approaching the base of the mountain.

A jolt ran from Riku's toes to his head. He ignored it. "Yes?"

"You know you do not have to be here. You are not a dragoon and we will be fighting a dragon. Dragons are not comparable to anything you have fought before. Are you sure you want to do this? It is likely that you will be seriously injured."

Riku was at a loss for words, this was the first time someone had genuinely cared about his safety since his parents had warned him about playing with wooden swords. Before he could dwell on it further, his mind brought up all the things that he had faced working for Maleficent, one of them starting with an "S" and ending in "ora". With a chuckle almost escaping his lips, Riku shrugged his shoulders and jogged ahead to catch up with the group. He was in no way worried about some dragon.

* * *

Riku noticed, as they started climbing along the trail up the mountain, how warm it was. The path continued into the mountain, through a long tunnel. About halfway through the tunnel, Riku noticed a reddish glow coming from the end of the tunnel. Curious, he walked a little faster and found himself at the head of the group when the tunnel emerged into a large cavern. Said cavern having mostly lava for a floor. There was a thin path along the wall towards another tunnel. Riku quickly started along the path so as not to be bumped into the lava. Though he did not really fear for his safety, he did not want to spend magic needlessly, especially when a dragon was next on the list of monsters to be killed.

"Next time someone please tell me when we go into an active volcano." Riku demanded to the people behind him, as he made his way up the thin ledge.

It had taken them half a week to reach the mountain; and the better part of a day to finally get close to the summit. Before they reached it though, Riku's ears picked up the sound of fighting. The grunts, the growls, the roars. It reminded him of his life in the army. . He was about to say something when Kongol spoke.

"Someone else here." The giant monotoned.

Dart nodded and the group jogged the rest of the way. Now everyone could hear the sound.

"Someone is already fighting the dragon!" Dart exclaimed. Running the rest of the way, Riku got a good look as the opponent jumped back from the dragon. It looked like...him.

He was wearing a light blue shirt and black pants. His silver hair went down about halfway down his neck. Even their skin tones, a pale pink, were similar. The warrior raised himself up from his crouching position and snapped his sword arm to the right. In his hand was a blade unlike anything Riku had seen before. The handle seemed to be some sort of red rock and the blade that came out of it was fire, crackling and moving with all the likeness of a true fire, save that it confined itself to a blade-like shape.

"Lloyd!" Dart gnashed his teeth and drew his sword.

"What a difficult beast. Even with the Dragon Buster," he said, looking at the sword, "..it still put up a good fight. Well I've weakened it enough for you. Go on heroes. Go and slay your dragon."

"You tried to control it and it attacked you." Rose said, drawing her sword.

"No. This dragon is nothing more than a beast, not something to be controlled, something to be exterminated." With that, Lloyd jumped away from them and ran off.

"Well. Let's kill it!" Miranda yelled, drawing her bow.

The group charged to the edge of a cliff, there the dragon stood at the edge, waiting for its prey. As its main eye looked at each of them with amusement, Dart threw the Dragon Block Staff towards the creature. The staff's green gem glowed and then the entire staff exploded. The dragon snapped its head towards Dart, who had drawn his sword. A quick look to left though and the dragon noticed Riku holding his keyblade; it locked his main eye on him and Riku suddenly found himself no longer on the mountain, but instead high over a battlefield, covered in the black blood of some creature and the red blood of Winglies. All he could feel was the overriding joy coming from beneath him. Looking down, he realized that he was riding the Divine Dragon.

"What the..." Riku thought and then suddenly the oppressive heat of the volcano crashed upon him again. Riku found himself on a ledge on the far side of the volcano. On the other side, he could see the dragon, in its death throws, as Lloyd cut open the main eye and grabbed a glowing gold gem out of the dragon's eye, gushing blood and some other liquid. Riku stood up and heard a jangle under his foot. He carefully lifted his foot up and saw what looked like a chain of some sort lying in the ground, buried under the dirt. Curious, he grabbed at the chain and pulled it free. It was a key-chain. Instead of one chain connected to an object however, seven chains branched out of the clip, each going to a different colored orb: red, violet, brown, black, green, blue, and white. Riku pocketed the chain and teleported over to the group where Lloyd had just started running away with something in his hand.

"Riku! Get us to the base of the mountain, we will cut him off." Dart yelled, anger in his voice.

Riku nodded and tore open a hole to the first tunnel they had entered into the mountain. As each member of the party clambered through, Riku felt part of him was drained into the void. Finally, Rose entered and whether it was because of the teleports he had done recently or because of what that dragon did to him the portal collapsed. Riku was completely shocked, while he had no idea how the whole system worked, he had seen a portal collapse unintentionally only once before. Riku grabbed the air and pulled down; and a small tear appeared, then disappeared.

"Well, I've got to walk then. Maybe I'm just out of magic, yeah, that's it I bet. I hope." Riku started running back down the path. When he got down to the cavern where he had sent everyone, he came upon Meru with her Winglie wings carrying Dart up from beyond the edge of the cliff. Rose was lying unconscious with Miranda healing her with the dragoon stone.

"What happened?"

"Here?" Albert asked. "Here Dart and Rose were attacked by Lloyd, who teleported here after running a bit down the path. And yes, the fire attack that he used and the teleportation makes him either your evil twin brother, or a Wingly. My bet is that he's a Wingly." Albert joked.

"I agree. He had that same arrogance as most old Winglies do." Rose stated matter of factly, completely oblivious to the joke. Meru glared at her, then after a second, her face changed to a look of confusion. She was about to say something when Albert continued.

"Now back on the summit, well, the dragon grabbed you and threw you back against that wall. After we beat it, Lloyd came and removed the Dragoon stone of the Divine Dragon. It didn't react with him, but he took it as a souvenir anyway."

"Lloyd!" Dart yelled, sitting up. "He's gone." Meru told him soothingly.

"He must be after the Sacred Moon item here." Albert said.

"Moon item? What are you all talking about?" Miranda asked.

Something about her voice clicked in Riku's head.

"She knows." He thought to himself.

"Surely you have some item here. The first word is Moon and it's a royal heirloom."

"I have no idea what you are talking about."

"Cut the crap and tell us so we can go already." Riku called over to Miranda. She shot him a glare that could melt mountains, he shrugged.

Miranda sighed, "The Moon Mirror. It is kept safe in Flanvel tower, but you need the queen to get in."

"Lloyd is after the queen then." Dart said, slamming his fist into the ground.

"Lloyd, that man from before? Wait, if he's... We must hurry! Riku! Open us a portal there now!" Miranda screamed hysterically.

"Not gonna happen. You all have _abused_ the portal opening power. I need at least a days worth of rest before I am back to full strength. So let'ss just follow Lloyd back on foot and by the time we get to Deningrad, I'll be up to snuff." Riku enunciated, placing special emphasis on "abused" as he looked at Miranda.

"LETS GO!" Miranda shouted from the entrance, having started running.

"This is going to be a long trip." Riku thought.

The first day Miranda had sprinted ahead of them, they came upon her collapsed form later that afternoon. After that she stayed with the group, but kept trying to goad everyone to go faster. Surprisingly, it was Meru who snapped first; and bashed Miranda over the head with her mallet. She wiped her hands with a big pleased smile on her face.

"You knocked her out, now you carry her." Dart said, exasperated by the situation.

Meru's smile vanished to be replaced with a pout, as she started dragging Miranda's unconscious body. It took all of two minutes for Kongol to pick up Miranda and keep the group moving at a regular speed.

* * *

"So Riku." Rose said. Jolt. Ignore.

"Yeah?"

"What happened with the teleporting magic? Has that ever happen before?"

Riku was sorely tempted to give his usual shrug, but he reconsidered, knowing how much he knew about her.

"Only once before. I had just captured a princess and was transporting her and myself back to...uh, my base. Anyway, I had just recently gained the transportation power and transporting two people was a little much for me at the time. I spent fourteen hours asleep after that before I got back to full strength. Basically same thing happened here. Throwing seven people through a portal after little rest and a few other portals was too much apparently." Riku shrugged. "I'm not perfect."

Rose raised an eyebrow at this and continued to walk in silence.

"It is comforting, you know, to have someone to confide your weakness in." She said after a time.

Riku shrugged, "It only takes one to break a secret."

* * *

Riku sat with the group around a campfire camped at the base of Kashua glacier. They decided to sleep here and then tomorrow set out and take down Lloyd.

When they had arrived at the palace, Sister Luanna told them that Lloyd had captured the queen; and was taking her to Flanvel tower, in the Kashua glacier, to obtain the Moon Mirror. Compounding that was the fact that _someone_ had taken Shana. And it made Dart even crazier than Miranda was. So Kongol ended up carrying both of them up the short path to the glacier; and here they were relaxing by the campfire.

"It is truly sad to see emotions become so powerful that they take over the entire mind." Haschel said, sitting down next to Riku.

"We have not talked much and you have traveled with us and helped us numerous times. So I ask, what do you think of Dart and Miranda's recent behavior?" The old man continued.

Riku hesitated to answer quickly; acting like he was giving the question thought, but he already knew. It was the same as when Sora used Betrayal to open his heart, it was the same as Ansem's obsession with darkness, it was the same as Jafar's pride and Hades' rage. Emotions, time and again, had destroyed, or nearly destroyed, those whom they possessed. Emotions corrupted far more than darkness ever could. "I find it disgusting. People should have better control of their emotions. Emotions serve no real purpose anyway though. In the heat of battle they can be crippling; and outside of battle they always are crippling."

"Your words speak of someone who has seen much. However, what do you think of love and joy? Surely there is.."

"I have felt neither in years." Riku interrupted tersely, getting up and walking to the tent.

"I may have loved Kairi, but that's gone forever now. Happiness...I beat Sora. That made me happy. Since then, nothing. The war was a nice diversion and it gave me some contentment, but that was it." Riku thought to himself, as he curled up and went to sleep.

* * *

Riku had to give it to these Winglies, the fact that a tower eleven thousand years old still had artificial gravity and teleporters working was impressive.

Eventually they had made it up to the top of Flanvel tower after going through strange teleportation rooms where gravity seemed to be maintained in all directions. Very odd. At the top was another teleporter going down and one going up. Dart, started for the one that went down, but Miranda corrected him and drove him towards the other one. The teleporter was big enough to fit everyone, so they all stood on it, drew their weapons and activated it. They found themselves in a very large room. There, Riku came across his double again. Riku had to admit, that given a few years and if he cut his hair, they looked very similar. That and the fact that he also had a flaming sword. And blue glowing wings. He also happened to be standing next to Queen Theresa.

He turned and bowed towards the queen, "Thank you for your help."

"You are a bastard" She yelled at him.

He then turned to Dart and the rest of the group, "You cannot stop me. I have all three Sacred Moon items. And I hold the pride of the Winglie race." He laughed and charged...

In the complete wrong direction. He went flying up; and then started flying towards them, with four pylons accompanying him. The pylons slammed into the ground around the group, and a design appeared on the floor, with the group encased in a circle in the middle of the design. Not a second later, Lloyd slammed into the ground in the center of the circle. Darkness rose out of the edges of the circle, making a half sphere. Dart started charging towards Lloyd, but stopped when Lloyd started emitting a bright gold light. Suddenly, the light erupted from his body. The sphere broke due to the impact and when Riku blinked, the pylons and the design were gone. However, Meru, Kongol, Miranda and Albert were all down and Haschel was struggling to get up. Haschel picked this time to transform into his dragoon form and performed the same lighting fast combo of attacks that he had performed on Riku so long ago. Lloyd took the hits, not even bothering to dodge, or possibly not able to. However, after he finished, Lloyd charged him and his body split into three shadowy forms. The first slashed Haschel across the chest, then the second shadow form slashed Haschel's gut and the third impaled Haschel right through the sternum. Lights blinked all over the final shadow form; and it became the true Lloyd. No blood sprayed from Haschel's wound; and Lloyd picked up the dragoon and slammed him into the floor. Haschel's dragoon form completely disappeared, leaving the martial artist with a burned hole in his chest, the smell of burned flesh started emanating.

"We can fix him later! We HAVE to stop Lloyd now!" Dart shouted to Riku. Dart then charged and began his latest combo, moon strike. Four quick slashes, followed by a thrust, then a grip change and another thrust; and finally Dart rammed the blade through Lloyd's leg into the floor. The armor that Lloyd wore prevented most of the damage, but the leg attack was strong enough to pierce; and blood ran down Dart's sword. Dart planted a foot on Lloyd's chest and freed his sword. Riku took the time to heal himself and Rose. Even though the attack left no noticeable wounds, Riku still felt that he had been injured internally. Indeed, when the heal spell was cast, he felt much better.

Rose then followed with her Demon Dance, but just as she started the initial thrust, Lloyd disappeared, only to reappear behind Riku, aiming a slash for his back. Riku jumped forward and half-turned, throwing a forceball as he flew away from the Winglie.

"A Fallen. Interesting." Lloyd said, as he dodged the ball. Rose threw a bottle at Lloyd. Large boulders began to fall from the ceiling, smashing into Lloyd, yet leaving everyone else safe. Finally, a particularly large jagged rock smashed into him. While on the outside it looked like he had not taken physical damage, he still reeled from the attack. Riku took the opportunity to charge forward and do his own rendition of hard blade. Stab, slash, crouch, jump, slash, stab, slash; ending it with a punch from his left hand straight to Lloyd's face. The blow connected and Lloyd was sent back five feet. His nose was now freely letting loose blood and blood was starting to seep out of his armor, in addition to the copious amount already leaking out from Dart's attack. Lloyd wiped his nose with his off hand, then lowered his blade to his side. Suddenly he rushed forward with inhuman speed and slashed upward at Rose. She saw it coming and completely blocked the blow, yet the force behind it was so strong that she was sent into the air. From there, Lloyd slashed at her more times than Riku could keep up with, finally ending it by slamming Rose into the ground. Rose woozily got up, her leather armor now stained crimson with blood, while her left arm had small rivers of the liquid running down and dripping at her fingertips. The attack seemed to have taken a lot out of Lloyd, who stood there panting after the attack, facing Riku and Dart. Seeing his chance, Riku switched grip on the keyblade and performed his teleportation strike. Suddenly, Lloyd felt a presence behind him. Turning, he saw the man in the black robe standing back to back against him and then the keyblade burst out of Lloyd's chest.

Lloyd sreamed as Riku pulled the blade out; and using the blunt end smashed into Lloyd's head, sending him flying into the wall. The Dragon Buster was sent flying towards Rose, the fiery sword retracting into the handle. She picked up the blade; and put it in her bag and removed one of their precious heaven's prayers. The potion was able to bring back the dead. She quickly gave it to Miranda, whose dragoon form had enough healing spells to get everyone else back up to snuff.

Lloyd stumbled to his feet and began to speak, "You have won this battle Dart Feld, I congratulate you. Go now to to Vellweb, there Emperor Diaz will explain everything to you. He also has Shana. Give him the moon items when you see him. Know this, that you are too late, everything is already in motion and cannot be undone. Now, kill me to christen your journey to Vellweb!" He spread his arms, laughing.

Dart's other hand grasped the sword. Raising it slowly over his head, he took a deep breath. Looking Lloyd straight in the eye, he charged. He brought the blade down on Lloyd's left shoulder. The blade sheared through the armor and Riku recognized the sound of bone being sliced by steel. Dart continued to pull the blade through, cutting the heart, slashing through all the ribs and continuing after a bit of hesitation through the spinal column, the blade then exited, just above the hip. Blood spattered all over Dart's face and body, as the two halves of Lloyd fell away from each other. The top, with Lloyd still showing a face of triumph, fell back, while the bottom fell to the side. Lloyd was dead.

Dart then turned and left through the teleporter. By this time, Miranda had transformed and healed everyone, however Haschel was still unconscious. Rose went over to Lloyd's body and removed the fist sized golden gem from under the armor of the dead man. In addition, she pulled out a green gem, a mirror, and a small dagger.

"The dragoon spirit of the Divine Dragon and the Sacred Moon items, have been recovered." She placed the items in her pack and then slowly, the group filed out, Kongol was carrying Haschel, leaving Riku staring at the dead man.

"Fallen?" He asked the corpse. Only Lloyd's sick smile answered him.

"I wonder what he meant." Riku thought, as he left.

When he joined up with the group, Dart had started leaving. "I'm going to rescue Shana and that's that. If you don't want to come, then stay. I won't hold it against any of you."

"I'm coming." Rose said, she was echoed by everyone else in the group, save Riku, who just shrugged his shoulders and followed the group.

* * *

Vellweb was a huge sprawling city 11,000 years ago, but now it was a dead ruin. Only seven large towers rose in the center. Rose told them that they were the towers of the seven dragoons that fought in the Dragon Campaign and beneath the towers was the throne room of Emperor Diaz.

"This can't be the same Diaz, he had to have died long ago." Albert remarked.

"I agree and that's why I am looking forward to meeting this impostor." Rose replied.

They continued on in silence, until they arrived at the entrance to the underground throne room. There, a woman with a flowing tattered robe and long red hair appeared and she was floating.

"Shirley? What are you doing here? I thought we put you to rest." Rose asked, her voice overflowing with confusion.

"Ah Rose, thank you for caring. Indeed, I am just about to depart, but I want to ask you to do something for me. After you have seen Diaz, please ascend the towers and put the souls of the dragoons who died in the dragon campaign to rest. Please Dart, will you do this for me?" The being said, her otherworldly voice seeming to come at Riku from all directions. Dart nodded and then a blinding flash erupted from her and then she was gone.

"Rose, what did you end up doing with the Dragon Buster?" Dart asked.

"It is still here in my bag. Why?"

"I was wondering if I could trade my sword out for it."

"I don't think so, its curved, and your combos need that straight blade."

"So why don't you use it then?"

Rose thought for a second, shrugged her shoulders, and threw her sword into a wall. She then pulled out the handle of the Dragon Buster. Using an internal switch, the blade activated.

"Much stronger than that old one. Whoever dies first, let Lloyd know how much I appreciate it." She said, her morbid humor returning.

* * *

The group stood on a platform, facing the throne of Diaz. In front of them floated the body of Shana, hovering over a huge crack in the earth that Riku could not see the bottom of.

"So you have arrived." The masked figure on the throne said. "Give me the Sacred Moon items."

Dart took the three items and threw them at the man. They all stopped midair and gently floated to his hand.

"Now give me back Shana!" Dart screamed at the man.

"I cannot do that." The man stated.

"And this guy is leading our party?" Riku though, looking incredulously at Dart.

"Shana is necessary for my plan to have the 108th fruit come alive." He continued.

"If you are Emperor Diaz, then you know what that means." Rose replied calmly, though her hand was twitching on the hilt of the Dragon Buster.

"I do." He took a long pause. "Complete destruction of the world. The 108th fruit, the Virage Embryo, the God of Destruction, shall fill the world with holy bliss, as he cleanses it of the life that has infested it. Isn't that right, Rose, the Black Monster?" He said, laughing menacingly.

Everyone turned to look at Rose, complete shock from Diaz's exclamation and revulsion on their faces. Rose ignored them and laughed.

"There is no moon child and there will not be another for 90 years. I killed her on that ship and will continue to do so to prevent the 108th fruit from coming alive. You will be dead and buried when the next one comes." She said defiantly.

"My dear Rose. Did you know that the princess had a twin sister?" Rose, started mumbling "no, no", over and over. "Indeed that twin sister was the moon child, not the innocent girl that you slaughtered Neet for." Rose's mumbling grew louder. "Indeed the real Moon child is right in front of us." "No! No!" Rose was shouting. "Shana is the true moon child!" He exclaimed, laughing.

Rose shook her head, "Then I will kill her now!" Rose exclaimed, drawing her sword and jumping for Shana.

"Rose! Stop!" Dart cried, but Rose ignored him and plunged the sword towards Shana's heart, only to be sent flying back by an unseen force.

"Who are you?" Dart yelled at the masked man, as Riku ran over to aid Rose.

Diaz, still laughing, removed his mask, revealing a blond haired man, who looked a lot like Dart. Rose looked up and started crying upon seeing his face.

"Zieg! Why? Why do this?" She cried, looking upon the man who she had seen Melbu Frahma turn to stone with a spell. The man whom she had failed to save.

"Father?" Dart looked aghast at the face of the father he had seen leave him and his mother behind to fight the black monster.

"Hello son, Rose. Over time, Melbu's spell waned and I finally broke free; I married a woman named Clair and had a son, Dart. I then found Lloyd and told him about my desire for a Utopia created by the 108th fruit. The fool believed me. After that, I had you do all my work for me in recovering the moon items and brought Shana here to me as well. Now however, I must be off. There is still work to be done. With that, he disappeared and Shana along with him.

"Shana!" Dart cried in the empty room.

Everyone looked around, no one seemed to have any idea of what to do. Finally, Rose composed herself and addressed the group.

"We are going to Ulara, I know someone there who will tell us what we must do next to stop Zieg from destroying the world." Rose said assertively, wiping the tears from her eyes and walked back the way they had come. She turned to the rest of them, "I'll explain everything on the way, but we have to go now." Albert helped the still bewildered Dart up and the group made its way south, to the desert of the Death Frontier.

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

Please insert Disc 4

Note from the great beta: May I just say that I am ENTIRELY against this chapter, even knowing the reason for it and the rest of the plot. Against, I might add, to the point where _I _(that was italicized, but I am not sure if the formatting will carry) flamed him for it. On the upside? What is going to be one of my favorite chapters is in the works. Jeff (who is always wrong) and I spent long hours arguing about it and it should be pretty. Again, flame his ass if you want, but at least drop a line saying you read the story. It's the polite thing to do. Also, Jeff had this written some time ago, the delay is entirely my fault.

The Great Beta

P.S. Applaud Jeff for improving his comma skills even if he still doesn't know how to use a semicolon.

A/N: Before those who have played flame me, I say one quote: "The addition of a single thread changes the garment."

NO I WILL NOT MAKE RIKU A DRAGOON

B/N: GOOD


	25. The Winglies

A/N: Legend of the Dragoon Spoilers. Also, this chapter was written in four hours running off only the inspiration from the KH2 intro movie. God I want that game.

Thanks to: QP, you are my favorite and best reveiwer ever, without you, i would surely have grown bored and gone and done something else, and thanks to Rablagon, and yes, the new keyblade is in action here.

Disclaimer: A couple of rich guys with Japanese accents and who have bank accounts with long strings of zeros in them own Kingdom hearts and Legend of the Dragoon. Not me. And of course, all characters belong to their respective owners. (namely not me. Nor is it you likely you.)

**The Winglies**

Riku found himself in an odd situation. Rose merely flew over the desert to get to Ulara; and none of the other people in the party had ever traversed a desert, so his experience on Pride Rock made him the expert on desert travel. They spent their first day sleeping, then began moving by night; Riku wasn't sure how Rose knew where she was going, but with complete certainty she indicated which direction they had to go. At every oasis, they would refill the canteens and spend an extra day just to keep the drudgery of the desert off their minds. Ten days into the journey, Riku woke up at noon to the sound of swords clanging together. He noticed that Dart was missing from his bedroll and went out into the sun.

The heat of the desert hit him in a wave of scorching heat; he left his cloak back in the tent and followed the sound of the battle. The sounds stopped just as he was about to crest a dune about quarter of a mile from camp. He continued slowly and carefully, not wanting to have his presence known. Soon he heard Dart and Rose's voices. Quickly, he scaled the rest of the dune and looked down upon the two of them: Rose was down and breathing hard; Dart was winded, but he looked the better of the two.

"You have grown strong Dart." Rose said, using the Dragon Buster to stand.

"You no longer need me to continue the journey. You have become an excellent Dragoon. The Zieg that I remember would be proud to have you as a son."

"Kill me Dart." Her voice was emotionless.

Dart just looked at her.

"You journeyed for a decade to kill me. Now you are strong enough to do it and I am giving you the opportunity. Kill me Dart. Kill the Black Monster."

Riku got ready to run to her aide. He could not believe what he was hearing. He wanted to run down and stop it, but then that little voice in him screamed "Stop!". Suddenly, Riku could not move at all as Dart raised his sword in front of him and then sheathed it.

Riku breathed a sigh of relief, the paralysis gone, as quickly as it had come.

"The Black Monster is dead. Now we just have Rose." He walked back to camp, towards Riku.

Riku ran as hard as he could back to camp and crawled into his bedroll.  
"Why?" was the thought plaguing his mind as he tried to sleep.

"And what was that voice?"

* * *

Riku noticed a slight green glow coming from a patch of sand as Rose led them further into the desert. He had put that day's incident out of his mind and focused on getting through the cold desert nights and now, 18 days later, Rose told them they had arrived. 

"But there is nothing here." Meru pouted, not happy about being forced to continue walking after the sun had risen.

"This choker not only gives me immortality, it also..." She unclasped the choker and held it up. A bright flash appeared in a large impression in the sand, about five miles from where they were.

"Reveals the Spring Breath town, Ulara." Rose said theatrically.

Everyone took a sharp breath and gazed upon the huge floating city in front of them. It was only about two miles across, but easily five miles tall and it hovered about 100 feet above the desert floor.

Rose used her foot to sweep away the sand covering the teleporter that Riku had noticed earlier. The group gathered onto the large green glowing rune and Rose activated it.

Riku was beginning to hate that sensation of being in two places at once and being stretched to make the physics work. Then, they were on the other side.

The town was very beautiful. Smooth white stone was the walkway and water ran in canals with small waterfalls alongside the roads. There were large planters full of bright green bushes and it seemed as if this town had no idea how close the desert was. A middle-aged woman with a grey robe and a red sash greeted them.

"Welcome Rose, Dragoons, and Riku is it? Charle desires to meet with you. I'm sure you know the way."

"Good to see that you haven't changed Caren."

"And its good to see that you are healthy as well Rose."

"Caren is the gatekeeper of Ulara, everyone passes through this teleporter when entering. Its considered common courtesy among the winglies, even though thtey can teleport without such aides."

The party made its way through the seemingly idyllic town; the few Winglies they met all told them that they needed to see Charle Frahma.

Finally, they found the old woman, sitting in a large easy chair of a large house.

"Ah! Rosie dearie! How are you? I haven't seen you in ages! And this must be our Zieggy's boy. He looks just like his father doesn't he Rosie?" Charle intoned in a very sweet and happy voice.

Rose sighed, "Learn to love her nicknames." she told the party, turning back the old woman, "So Charle, how can we stop Zieg?"

"It is really too bad about Zieggy isn't it. Can you fight the man who was going to be your husband Rosie?" Charle said, still with a sweet voice, but a touch more somber.

"Can we stay out of my personal life and figure out what we are going to do please?" Rose ordered, exasperated.

"Of course dearie." Charle smiled.

Charle explained to them that in addition to having Rose kill the moon child, there were seals in place that would prevent the moon child from ascending to the Moon that Never Sets.

"You people are scary. Even my failure was in your plans." Rose said, glaring at the old woman.

"Its not nice to interrupt Rosie dearie."

The moon items were the keys that unlocked the seals and Zieg needed the Sacred moon items to destroy the seals. When Meru asked why they would make items to break the seals, she told them how she had made the seals to limit the power that her brother Melbu Frahma was receiving from the soul of the God of Destruction. He didn't like that, so he created the Moon items to destroy the seals if he had to. The seals were located in Aglis, Mayfil, and Zenebatos; ancient flying cities that had crashed to the ground after the Dragon Campaign. There had been another seal in Deningrad, but that had been destroyed when the Divine Dragon attacked. Their job was to beat Zieg to these cities and prevent him from destroying the seals with the Sacred Moon items, either by killing or incapacitating Zieg and destroying the Sacred Moon items.

"How will we get to these cities?" Dart asked.

"The king of Tiberoa has a ship ready for you." Charle replied

Miranda looked at Riku. "Sorry, haven't been there, so I don't think I can get us there." he said, trying to avoid the blond woman's glares.

Charle's perfectly happy face twitched for a second, "Riku..is it? What do you mean exactly?"

Albert, ever eager to impart knowledge, told the old woman everything about Riku's ability to teleport.

"Young man, would you mind teleporting outside for me please, so I can see this power of yours?" Charle continued, her sickeningly sweet voice somehow even more sweet than before.

Riku got a bad feeling, but everyone was looking at him and it looked like he didn't have a choice. He grabbed at space and tore a hole to just outside the doorway. He stepped through, then walked back to Charle.

"Very impressive. I have never heard of a Winglie teleporting in that fashion. Where did you say you were from?"

"I didn't. And are you sure I am a Winglie?" Riku was finding this woman a little too prying for his taste.

"Pardon me then. In regards to your question, you look very similar to us."

"And that reminds me, what exactly is a Fallen? Some Winglies in the forest called me a Fallen. At the time I thought they were talking about Meru, but then Lloyd called me a Fallen before we killed him. So am I a Fallen?" Riku inquired, his eagerness driving him into the offensive

"I would rather not say. After all this business is over, come back and you and I will talk Riku dear. Well, its getting late, why don't you all explore Ulara a bit at night." Charle said, signaling that their little verbal duel was to be taken care of later.

The group split up, Rose stayed to talk with Charle, while Kongol and Albert looked at the weapon shop. Riku would have gladly joined them, but ever since he had gotten the keyblade, there was really no need. He had a weapon that never dulled, that never needed replacement, and whose accessories were more often found underfoot than in a store. This got Riku to thinking about examining the new keychain. So, leaving his cloak by his bed (which Charle had so graciously offered them) he found a nice secluded bench by the entrance to the city and summoned the keyblade. He took out the new keychain, the one that he had found in the Divine Dragon's layer. He had seen Sora's keychains when he fought him as a pawn of Ansem, as well as the ultima one. All of those were a single silver chain attached to a clip; this one was a large clip, with seven small chains coming out, each attached to a different colored orb. Riku removed the Betrayal clip, half expecting it to revert to the Soul Eater. It did not. What was left was the keyblade that Mickey and then he used. The golden blade with the silver guard and the immovable keychain with a large circle with two semi-circles on top of it. He then attached the new keychain next to the the original keychain, which promptly disappeared. After the flash had subsided, Riku was astonished to find that the keyblade had no blade. Instead, there were ethereal colors that floated in the shape of the original keyblade, but it was difficult to be sure. The guard had been taken away too, leaving an ethereal guard of swirling colors. The only solid thing left was the silver colored handle.

"Well this thing looks pretty useless for attacking. Maybe its more magic oriented?" Riku thought, standing up and pocketing the Betrayal keychain.

"Lets start with the basics" He thought.

He pointed the handle up and softly said "fire".

A huge fireball went flying out about 2 feet from the end of the handle. It was easily twice as big as the firaga spell. Additionally, the red orb on the keychain glowed as the spell was cast and then stopped after the fireball had disappeared. A smile went on Riku's face.

He went to the tavern, where Haschel and Miranda were busy trying to see who could hold the most liquor. Ignoring the two, Riku asked where he could practice a little magic without worrying. The bartender looked at the young man, shrugged his shoulders and told Riku of a practice range behind Charle Frahma's house. Riku thanked him and couldn't stop himself from running all the way to the practice range. What he found was a long, narrow field, also with the smooth white stone ground common to the entire city and at the far end was two series of concentric circles of alternating color. Suddenly a fireball went zinging towards the two targets, only to fall far short. Riku looked up and there was a Winglie in white shorts and a black tank top. The Winglie had silver hair cut short and he looked to be about 14 years old. At the same time, the Winglie looked down and noticed someone else on the practice range.

"Sorry!" The Winglie called, flying down. "I didn't know anyone else was going to be here. I'll...hey, I don't recognize you." He landed. "You must have been the group that everyone was talking about. You are... Meru right?"

Riku blinked and looked at the kid like he was a moron. "Wait. Meru's a girl's name though. So that makes you..huh. Who are you again?" The kid said, shrinking into himself.

Riku sighed, "Riku. You really need to work on your fireballs kid. Try starting on level ground, then go fly."

The kid got all huffy. "Lets see you try it then."

Riku summoned the keyblade and pointed it at the target.

"Hey! Thats no fair. You can't use a magic amplifying weapon. Thats cheating." The kid whined.

"Fine then." Riku said, slightly amused. He shoved the keyblade into the ground and let go. The handle fell to the ground, with the ethereal blade sinking into the stone. "That thing really can't hurt anything can it." Riku thought.

Riku then held out his palm and created a forceball. Taking careful aim, he threw the ball. It burned a hole right through the target's center.

"By the Goddess! What the hell did you just throw? That was a magically reinforced target! Only a elder could have thrown a bomb through the target like that. And what kind of bomb was that? I've never seen anything like it!" The kid was ecstatic.

"Bomb?" Riku asked.

The kid put out his palm and the same ball of fire that Riku had seen the other Winglies hold in the forest appeared.

"This is a bomb. That was sweet though. But can you take out the other target while flying?" The kid got smug again.

"Flying? I can't fly." Riku said, a slight chuckle escaping his lips.

"What kind of Winglie can't fly? I could fly when I was as young as three years old. And I was considered a late bloomer." The kid, now condescending, had by now experienced more mood swings than Riku knew was possible in such a short period of time.

"Well, maybe I'm not a Winglie then." Riku stated to the kid.

The kid just looked at him quizzically. "My name is Dagon." he said, extending his hand.

Riku picked up the keyblade and pointed it toward the other target. If a fire spell was twice as big as the firaga spell... Riku smiled.

"Firaga." A ball of fire at least 5 feet in diameter went streaking towards the target. The second target ceased to exist, and the red stone on the keychain glowed brilliantly.

Dagon just stood there, his mouth completely open in amazement.

"If you open your mouth any wider kid, I could paddle a canoe through it." Riku laughed. Something about this kid just made him open up.

Riku then tried a blizzaga spell and sure enough, the blue ball lit up.

Dagon had fallen on to the stone and just sat there in amazement as Riku went through his spells. Riku tried a regular Aeroga, it had been a while since he had done the normal one. The green stone lit up. Not surprisingly, the earthra spell, which Riku used to create a chair under Dagon, lit up the brown stone. Thunder lit up the violet stone, the bolts of lightning blasting holes into the ground. This left the black and white stones left. Graviga tore up the entire floor of the practice range, creating a large crater. It also lit up the black stone.

"Kid. Do me a favor. Hit me with one of your 'bombs'."

"What? You have to be insane!" Dagon protested.

"I'm waiting." Riku tapped his foot.

"Alright, but don't blame me when you get hurt." Dagon closed his eyes, formed, and then threw a bomb at Riku. His aim was off and it hit Riku in the leg. What surprised Riku the most was that his clothing didn't burn. What also surprised him was that he felt his thigh bone crack.

"The kid has a bit of power behind him." Riku thought.

"Curaga." Riku said and the white ball lit up.

"Hey! What did you just do?" Dagon yelled at him, very confused, "All the cuts I got yesterday after falling into the bushes are gone. Why did you heal me? You should have healed yourself first."

"I did. You must have caught the spillover effect from it." Riku said.

"This keyblade is really strong magically. I wonder if it affects my dark magics any." Riku thought.

"Dagon. Leave. This is about to get messy." Riku ordered, his voice both demanding obedience and failing to mask a bit of glee.

Dagon went down to where the remainder of the now lone target was, while Riku raised the keyblade over his head. He took a deep breath.

"Hidden Door!"

Riku rose in the air. Without a target, the attack just went out from the center 360 degrees. Riku charged forward and entered then used the dark teleport to return back over and over. The pillars of fire lept much higher than they used to and were wider in diameter. When the attack ended, Riku examined the balls. The red and black one were both glowing. Then Riku kicked himself.

"That attack is completely useless now. The whole point is to stab the opponent as many times as possible and if I'm stabbing him with this keyblade,it will probably hurt as much as a fly bite. Lets try a forceball though."

Dagon came flying over to him. "That was sweet! How did you do that? That was so cool."

"One last trick though. Lets see." Riku held out his left hand and summoned a forceball. As expected, the black stone lit up and the ball was as big as Riku's head. Riku threw it at the partially destroyed first target and all that was left was the outermost ring with a foot wide hole in it.

"Dude! Teach me! Come on, teach me. You have to teach me all that stuff." Dagon was begging on his hands and knees in front of Riku.

"Sorry kid. I'm heading out in the morning. I will tell you one thing though. Start close to the target and then work your way back. It will build up confidence."

"Come on! Please! Can you teach me something tonight at least? Please?" The kid whined.

"Well, maybe one spell. One. Which one do you want?"

"That dark variant of the bomb. That is really really cool."

Riku was hoping he wouldn't say that. Darkness still corrupts and he did not want to do this to Dagon. "That's a little too advanced for you. How about blizzard. You can freeze your foes solid."

"Well, I guess. Wait. Freeze them solid? Hell yeah! Lets do this!"

So Riku showed Dagon the ropes of elemental casting. The kid really had very little education about the elements, he only knew that creatures had elements and that they were weak against their opposite. After about two hours, Dagon had it down.

"Blizzard!" He yelled, aiming it for one of the stone path's stones that Riku had pried out of the wreckage of his spell casting. The cold blast hit the rock, solidifying the water vapor around it. The rock hit the ground. Dagon ran over and touched it.  
"Riku!" Dart called from the balcony of Charle's house. "We are all going to sleep. You better too."

Riku nodded and started going back to Charle's house, leaving Dagon alone in the practice range.

"Goodbye Riku! Thank you!" Dagon called. Riku never turned back.

He went up to the room where everyone was sleeping. Charle was standing there, wishing them all a pleasant dream.

* * *

"Where is Riku?" Dart asked, as the rest of the group was standing on the teleportation device that would take them to Tiberoa. 

"He is no Dragoon. We will keep him here until you get back. We don't want him getting hurt. You will have to fight Zieg probably and many other terrible monsters as well." Charle said, smiling the whole time.

"No off with you. Shoo shoo! Get going." She chided, shooing them off with her hands like they were little children. A green glow enveloped them and they disappeared.

"I want every warrior with me. Its time to talk to Riku." Charle said, her voice now one of conviction and steadiness, her smile completely gone.

_Meanwhile_

Mary loved her job. Since she was almost an elder, she did not have to do much in terms of work for the community. She loved the fact that since she was the eldest of the non-elders, she got to pick which area to maintain. She of course chose the practice range. No one except Dagon and a few others used the place and they were too weak to do any real damage. So Mary simply inspected the practice range and then went of and relaxed for the rest of the day. May was humming a tune that she had recently picked up as she walked down to the practice range. When she got there however, she screamed. There was a crater 4 feet deep in the middle, one target had a hole in it, while the other was was completely missing altogether. In addition, there was a marble chair simply rising out of the ground and there were holes in the tile and what looked like burn marks around them. "Nooooo!" She screamed, slumping to the ground.

* * *

Riku slowly got out of bed and noticed that everyone else was gone. He blinked a few times, grabbed his cloak and started heading towards the door when Charle opened it. There were two Winglies behind her and Riku could see more flying behind them. That bad feeling didn't creep up on him. It pounced. 

"Uh. Good morning?" Riku asked

"Good morning Riku." Charle said in her happy, sing-songy way. "Now if you'll be a good boy and not resist, we can get this over with quickly."

"So." Riku uttered, "Is this about the damage on the practice range? I'm very sorry about that. I'll help you clean up even. Though I really do have to get going. Rose will be looking for me."

"Riku, you are to be tried as being a Fallen Winglie and if found guilty, you are to be executed. Seize him" Charle smiled, still in her happy little voice.

"This is bad." Riku thought. He grabbed space and pulled. Nothing happened.

"Your dark magic has been sealed Riku. Please do not resist." Charle admonished, her sweet tone grinding on Riku's nerves.

Riku contemplated fighting his way out, but remembering how much damage one of those bombs from Dagon did, he did not want to think about what would happen if Charle got him.

Riku put his hands up.

"Such a good boy. So very unlike Zieggy."

* * *

Riku sat in a cell deep under the surface of the city.

"Can I get some food please?" He shouted. The guard at the end of the hall didn't respond. The hall itself was made of earth and looked like the hall had been formed just for the very purpose of jail cells.

"So lets see. I don't know what a Fallen is, yet I am accused of being one. Well, she said I was a Fallen Winglie. As long as I prove that I'm not a Winglie, then they can't say that I'm a Fallen Winglie. I hope. I need to know more." Riku thought.

"Hey! Mr. Silent! Could I get some food Please! I haven't had breakfast yet! Could you send in a lawyer too? That would be nice!" The guard didn't move.

"Bringing food to the prisoner sir." A voice in the distance told the guard.

"Go on."

Riku stood up from his cell, a completely bare rock room, maybe six by ten by eight feet tall. He went to the cold iron bars of his cell and watched the figure approach. Riku recognized him instantly. Dagon.

Riku looked at the youth.

"Here. A loaf of bread and a canteen of water. Thats all I could get for you. I'll see you at the trial. I'm backing you, because seriously, whose heard of a Winglie without wings?" Dagon said quickly, sliding the tray with the food through a slot in the door for just such a purpose.

Riku nodded and started eating.

* * *

It was difficult to tell time in the cell, but Dagon came and fed him seventeen more times. Finally, a quintet of guards came. They unlocked his cell and led him to a room that was one flight of stairs up from Riku's position. Here, sunlight streamed through the windows and the place was full of Winglies. Instead of pews however, there were red chords hung from wall to wall and the Winglies hovered behind those chords. There was one chair and Charle Frahma was sitting in it. It faced the congregation of Winglies. Behind her, a relief of a six armed woman hung. The guards led Riku to a spot on the ground that was lighter in color than the rest. After placing him there, the guards left stood guarding the one door.

"Riku the Fallen. You are charged with being a Fallen. How do you plead?" Charle asked, her sweet tone gone, replaced with one that demanded respect.

"Ouch, guilty until proven innocent it seems." Riku thought, wincing.

"What are my options? How does this whole thing work?" Riku asked, not sure at all of what was going on.

"Your options are guilty or innocent. You will plead if you plead innocent, the prover," She indicated a gruff looking Winglie man who flew ten feet to Riku's right two feet up, "will try to prove your guilt. After they are done, then you may provide any evidence that you have that you are innocent. Then, if you have sufficiently convinced me that you are not a Fallen, you will be released. If you have not, then you will be executed. Any further questions?"

"No. I plead innocent." Riku said, his confidence returning. He knew a little at least of what was going on.

"Wait." Riku corrected himself, "What exactly is a Fallen? I probably should know that before pleading don't you think?"

"I will answer that." The "prover" commanded. "A Fallen is a Winglie who was banished from this world for using true darkness in his magic, which nearly destroyed this world."

Confidence surged in Riku, he was sure he was no Winglie, "In that case I plead innocent."

"Very well, the Fallen has claimed his innocence. Prover, you may begin."

"This Winglie has proven that he uses true darkness as magic. For proof, I ask for Charle Frahma's rendition of what occurred the day that Riku joined us. Ms. Frahma, if you would please." The man's tone reminded Riku of some of the older men in his squad in the army: mean and bitter.

Charle stood and spoke, "That day I was introduced to the Fallen, one of the dragoons told me of his ability to teleport the entire group over great distances. I asked for a demonstration. He tore a hole in the very fabric of space and walked through it."

"Thank you. I now call upon Dagon. Please stand in sight of the Goddess. Know that you will be only able to tell the truth. Do not try to deceive." Dagon flew down and stood between Riku and the relief.

"Can you tell us what you witnessed the night that you met Riku on the practice Range." the prover ordered.

Dagon then went on to talk of Riku's forceball, as well as the Graviga spell and the hidden door technique.

"Finally, I ask that the Fallen demonstrate for us this teleportation spell of his. The room has been sealed, so that he may only go from one side of the room to another."

Seeing how Charle had nodded when he said this , Riku grabbed and tore a hole and appeared on the right of the prover.

"This good enough for you?" Riku asked. The prover didn't appear phased at all.

"Thank you, now return." Riku walked over to his little box on the ground.

"The proof has been given." The prover completed.

"The Fallen may now defend himself if he wishes." Charle intoned.

"May I have pen and paper?" Riku asked.

Charle motioned for the one of the guards. He left and returned with a roll of paper and a pen, which he handed to Riku, then returned to his post.

Riku was about to ask for something to write on, but got a better idea.

"Earth" he said. A squat pillar rose in front of him. Riku wrote down the "prover"'s points: forceball, graviga, hidden door, teleportation.

"Right, so first the spell that created that crater. It is not a "true darkness" spell. It is simply a manipulation of gravity. If Charle would seal my dark powers completely, then I can show you that I will perform the spell without any problems."

Charle closed her eyes, then nodded to Riku. Riku did not want to see what would happen if he used the keyblade's power.

"Gravira" he said and the earth pillar was squished flat against the ground. Riku took the pen and scratched out graviga.

"Now that leaves the true darkness spells that the prover had mentioned before. He is absolutely, 100 percent correct. They are true darkness spells, however, I say that I cannot be a Fallen even though I do use them. I say this because I am not a Winglie. And since I am not a Winglie, how can I be a Fallen Winglie?" There was mumbling in the crowd and Dagon gave Riku a thumbs up.

"From what I have gathered of your specie, you have wings. You also create what Dagon calls bombs. While the similarities exist, such as the silver hair and the elemental spells and teleportation, I say that without the wings, I am no Winglie. In addition, since you are a completely different specie than me, I am sure your magic will be able to find some fundamental difference between me and Winglies. I ask that whoever is skilled at such magic do such a thing for me please."

"Caren? If you would please?" Charle asked the woman who had greeted them when they entered Ulara.

Karen flew down from the congregation; after examining Riku for some time, declared that he was not a Winglie.

"The proof is given." Riku concluded, mimicking the prover.

"It is time for the decision." I think it is clear that Riku is not a Winglie and therefore not a Fallen. However. I will strictly caution you Riku not to use the powers. The Fallen had become corrupted by the darkness and..."

"Been there, done that. Not happening again." Riku stated.

"Very well, but considered yourself warned. If you become corrupted, we will not hesitate in putting you down. This trial has concluded."

* * *

Riku was given a small apartment to spend the rest of the time until Dart and the others came back. Riku had already spent about four months traveling with the group and he learned that he had sat in jail for a month. Apparently they had cast a similar spell to Rose's on him, only his was temporary. That was why he didn't really need the food that Dagon had brought him. 

Riku had come back to the practice range the day he got out to find a very mean woman glaring at him.

"Did you do this? Did you make me spend three weeks cleaning up your mess here? Do you know how much I had to work?"

"Lady, I'm sorry. I did volunteer to clean it up. Take it up with Charle. I'm guessing you don't want me practicing here?"

The woman's eyes widened, "Goddess no! Find someplace else."

"This place is so easy to get to though. And I don't know any other places. I guess I'm forced to work here then. I really ought to stop using my weaker spells and concentrate on my stronger ones too. Don't you think so?" Riku said, using the same tricks he had done to Sora for years. Apparently, they worked here too.

Somehow the woman's eyes widened even further. "Listen, I know a place. A great place. Its much bigger and its easy to get to. I'll show you myself. And you can go boom boom all you want and no one important will care."

"Jackpot" Riku thought, as the woman led him down into a large cavernous room.

"Thank you, you have been very helpful. I'll even bring Dagon in here to practice. That should make things easier for you."

"Oh thank you child." The woman said graciously, as she walked away.

"Lost an enemy, gained someone who owes me one. And I got a better practice place. Good day."

Riku started using Earthra to make targets out of the walls, having each ring be a different kind of rock. He also cleared away a large section and then filled it with large pillars. He turned around and there was Dagon, marveling at the work that Riku had done. Dagon ran over to Riku, "Is what Mary said true? Your going to train me here? Riku you are the best!"

Riku was about to protest, but thought better of it, "Well, it can't hurt really to have him around. And it will keep Mary happy. And thats something."

"OK kid, were going to start with the basics. You already know blizzard, so first we will get fire down." Riku started.

* * *

Three months passed and still no word from Dart and the others. The moon had not yet fallen out of the sky, which was obviously a good thing, but Dagon had learned all of the basic element spells and had started pestering Riku about the dark stuff. Riku had first told him no, that he knew it would get him in trouble and Dagon in very big trouble. But Dagon eventually pestered him enough so that here he stood, asking Charle if he could teach Dagon the dark spells. 

"Well, first I have to ask a bit about how you learned the dark spells. As far as we know, all the Fallen were banished from this world. How is it that you learned from them?"

So Riku told her about how Maleficent had tricked him and then taught him them and how he used them to travel the worlds.

"So she must have learned it from one of them. Sorry I don't know any more."

"Hmm. Well, I personally don't see any problem with it, so I'll allow the teaching of the chaos orb and the dark rift." Charle said, her sweet tone back again. Riku was really thankful to his parents, because of his name, it was hard for Charle to give him a nickname.

"Huh?" He asked, "Chaos orb? Dark rift?"

"Ah, excuse me. Those were the old names of spells similar to yours. The one where you throw the bomb variant and the teleportation one. We do not want him having that Hidden door thing. Sounds dangerous." She said, putting a mocking tone on the word dangerous.

* * *

"OK Dagon, you got the all clear from the big lady. You get the forceball and the teleportation. The rest you have to figure out for yourself after I leave. Remember I said _after_. Right, so, you do have to be very very careful with this darkness stuff. I knew a man who was so consumed by it that not only did he give up his heart to it, but he also had an obsession with saying the word over and over. So first, the forceball. A forceball is concentrated dark energy. Regular energy comes in the form of either heat or light or both. Dark energy is a third type of energy. So dark that it sucks up light, so cold that is burns.

* * *

Three more months passed and still no word from Rose. Riku was beginning to think that they forgot about him here. Dagon had finally gotten good enough with the magic that Riku began teaching him how to teach himself stronger stuff. He did this of course by making the kid learn what the stronger stuff was, on the receiving end. He learned very quickly cura and blizzara. The kid had a natural talent for the freezing arts and to heal all the injuries he accumulated, he _needed_ cura. When it came to the dark magic though, he was downright gifted. He was easily able to fling around forceballs without any trouble and his aim was drastically improving. Given probably another three months and the kid would be able to be on a semi-level playing field with Riku, when he wasn't using the new keyblade of course. Dagon in fact had suggested a name for the blade, Ethereal Edge. Riku didn't like it, but it would do until he came up with a better one. 

"Now, stand way back at the far edge of the cavern and start chucking them at me." Riku ordered.

"Yes sir!" Dagon said and when far enough away, he started flinging forceballs like crazy. Riku had used the time training to improve his dodging skills, it seemed as if with the new keyblade he had reached mastery of magic. So instead he worked on his physical stuff, having Dagon practice under close combat conditions. Riku could swing as hard as he wanted and Dagon wouldn't have to worry about any injuries. The blade did hurt a little if it hit someone, but it was more like a cat scratch than a weapon of ultimate power.

Suddenly, it sounded like an earthquake was occurring on the surface. Even 100 feet above ground, Riku felt that the very air was vibrating.

"The moon has fallen." Dagon said, stopping.

"Riku!" Charle called to him from the entrance, "Dart and the others will be here very soon, you have to get to that moon and stop Zieg there."

Riku nodded and teleported to his apartment. He grabbed his cloak, his Betrayal keychain and ran to Caren's transporter.

Riku looked up, above them was a large blue flying creature. Riku had never seen anything like it. It looked similar to the stingrays back on Destiny Islands, but was easily twenty feet across, as opposed to four. Riding on top of it was the rest of the party.

The beast flew down next to the platform and Riku jumped on.

"Coolon. To the moon!" Dart ordered.

The beast sped off very quickly as they headed for the Moon that Never Sets, which had crashed to the northeast.

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

A/N: Beta is having permanent address problems, and as such, this chapter is technically "unfinished". Thus, think of this more as like a late stage beta. Not much will be changed, just some tweaks when she finds a place to put her computer to read her email to fix the story. Next chapter coming on the 27th.


	26. Moon and Love

A/N: Again spoilers for legend of the Dragoon. Also, if you think I have been playing with the plot before, that was just a lazy warm up. LoD fans, flames are accepted and will be used to keep my red eyed dragon warm. Also, this is not the final draft of this chapter, and will be edited sometime before the next one goes up.

Thanks to: My beta, for being the best person in the world, living through hell and still managing to shred my self confidence into appropriately sized ribbons. Thanks to Rablagon for provided his aid in artwork (pic of Riku's keyblade may appear), and thanks to Mr. Perendhil for his continuous support.

Disclaimer: I do not own Kingdom Hearts, Legend of the Dragoon, or a small middle-eastern country. All characters and AK47's belong to their respective owners.

**Moon and Love**

As the beast Coolon raced in the direction of the impact, Albert filled Riku in on what had happened. They had arrived in Tiberoa and took a ship to Haschel's home island of Rouge. Upon arriving, a path opened along the sea floor. They took it; and arrived at the Magic City, Aglis. There, they met Savan, a Winglie who had been researching how to create another seal for the moon. When they got to the seal room, where Moot, the invention that would create a fourth seal was being created, the guardian was possessed by Zieg's magic; and even though they killed it, the resonance between the dragoon spirits, Moot, and the seal caused the destruction of the seal, Moot, and the death of Savan in the resulting explosion. From Aglis, they used the inter-city transportation device to go to Zenebatos. There they met Coolon, who had been a final gift from Savan to them. They also found that in addition to magic, Zieg had also learned how to fly. He used the moon dagger and destroyed the seal there. From there, they used the transportation system to get to Mayfil, the death city. Zieg ambushed them and stole Dart's dragoon stone; and the stone recognized Zieg. Zieg then destroyed the seal of Mayfil and Coolon came and got us. We headed here to pick you up and that was that.

"So why did the moon fall?" Riku asked.

"The seals were created to keep the body (the moon) and the soul (the moon child) of the Virage Embryo from reuniting. All the seals really did was put the moon very very far away in the sky, so that there was no way for the soul to reach it. It was a remarkable idea, but with all the seals broken, the moon returnes to its final resting place, atop the Divine Tree." Albert replied.

"Nothing important happened with me. So if Dart is not longer the dragoon of the Red Eyed Dragon, then.." Riku trailed off, unsure of where to take that thought.

"Now he is the dragoon of the Divine Dragon. You should see his dragoon form, it is extremely powerful." Albert said.

"There it is!" Dart said, pointing to a huge structure in the distance. The Moon rested on top of a humongous tree trunk. From that trunk, seven branches had grown and then sank into the ground about ten miles away from the trunk. When the moon had hit the trunk, the branches had severed from the trunk, creating large gaps.

When they had approached about fifty miles from the branches, the surface of the moon started acting strangely. By the time they had reached one of the branches, _things_ started flying out of the moon.

"Virage!" Dart called to everyone. The things looked vaguely humanoid. They had two legs and two arms, each as thick as large tree trunks and were completely white. In addition, they were about eighteen feet tall and they had at least a dozen green eyes and white leathery wings. As they neared the moon, the Virage started attacking. Beams of light shot out of their eyes, aimed at Coolon. Their mount did an excellent job of dodging. However, soon the air was swarming with Virage and not even the great Coolon could dodge hundreds of bolts at once. He was hit and they spiraled down towards the base of the tree.

"We are going to crash!" Meru screamed.

"We are coming in too fast. Everyone dragoon now, Riku, do you need help?" Dart asked.

Teleporting was out of the question, he would come out the same velocity as he went in.

"Yeah!" Riku shouted, as the wind started blowing harder.

Dart nodded, then dove off of Coolon. Everyone else followed his lead. When Riku leaned over to see them, a huge dragoon came into view. It had seven wings and had an very light grey armor color. Its left arm was a cannon, a foot wide in diameter. It was difficult to tell, but it looked like Dart, if you added a few feet in height.

"Jump!" the dragoon ordered. Riku jumped off the falling Coolon and Dart grabbed him. Their ride spiraled into the ground, finally crashing. The dragoons flew down to the ground and, after paying their respects to Coolon, they headed into the trunk of the tree.

* * *

It took them all day to climb up the tree, as well as ride up through some of the sap lines, to reach the moon; the sap lines were feeding the moon, and so riding them would take them closer. They had encountered a strange bug on their way. Dart did not want to take any chances, so everyone transformed into their dragoon forms. Riku was very impressed with how much damage they were doing to the bug. He was also impressed at how much health the bug had. Then Dart slammed his sword into the ground and pointed his arm at the bug.

"Divine Dragon Cannon!" He shouted. A blast of pure magical energy flooded out of the cannon on Dart's arm and. The bug now had a gaping hole in it the twice the size of Riku's powered up forceball. It twitched a couple of times, then lay still.

"I should have used this thing sooner." He said aloud, admiring the gun.

"Not bad." Riku thought.

"We are almost there. Look! There it is, the moon!" Miranda shouted, pointing upward at the huge moon that settled on the top of the tree. They were very close now, not 200 feet under it.

"Hey!" Meru shouted to the group, "I found another sap line! This one looks like it goes all the way there!" She jumped in. When everyone else followed her, they found themselves inside the moon. The interior was a large empty space, with an incountable number of red veins streaking out from a light in the distance. The group was stadning on one of those veins.

"There! There is the core!" Albert called, pointing to the ball of light in the distance. As if in response, pulses of white light streamed from the core in all directions. The pulses washed over the group and Riku began to feel dizzy. The pulses got faster and faster, until everything was white.  
When Riku could again see, the light had died and they appeared to be in a forest. The trees looked as real as could be and the path that the group was on was dirt. However, there were no sounds of animals, no buzzing of insects, just complete silence.  
"The tree feels real." Haschel said, punching the tree with his fist.  
"The moon must be trying to stall us. We have to move on ahead, quickly." Dart ordered, taking charge of the group.

"Should we follow the path?" Haschel asked, still uncertain in this "forest that is not a forest".

"It doesn't seem that we have a a choice in the matter, so we may as well." Albert calmly replied.  
The group headed along the path and in a few minutes, the forest fell away, to reveal a plain and only a few minutes after that, they entered a snow covered forest. The path split, one way going into the forest, the other going down and underground.

"This is the evergreen forest. Near..." Miranda started talking to herself, "Guys, I'll be right back, I just have to check something. Don't follow me." She ran off along the split towards the forest. Ten minutes later, Miranda reappeared, with heavily bruised and clutching her arm.

"What happened?" Dart asked.

"I.. I met my mother. And she told me why she left me and my father. I never knew." She starting sobbing, then full out crying. Meru comforted her and a few minutes later, she had controlled herself enough for the group to keep moving.

When they went underground, after a few steps, they found themselves on the top floor of an inn, the wall behind them shimmering as each person walked through.

"What the...?" Albert asked. "This is Bale, my home city, 20 years ago!" He cried, astonished by his surroundings.

"The moon seems to be showing us memories of our past." Rose commented.

"Is that?" Haschel looked downstairs and there, a young woman walked through the back wall. "It can't be!" Haschel, suddenly emotional, took off towards the back wall. "Wait for me here!" He shouted as he ran through the wall.

15 minutes later, Haschel came back, a gash on his face, and slightly hobbling.

"It was my fault." He sighed, "I made her run away. I did nothing wrong, it was not preventable. I understand that now. Stuck between destiny and duty. Do you think we can rest here? I'm pretty badly banged up."

"Sure. I am positive I can get us a discount rate here." Albert said.

"Do we really have the time to sit here and wait?" Riku asked, "We are trying to stop the birth of a god. Do we have time to rest?"

"We have to face him at full strength and that means we will have to rest at least once." Dart commanded, "How about this. Miranda and Haschel will wait here and heal up. It seems that we each have to face some aspect of our past; so the rest of us will travel and figure out where we are to go. Those who face their challenges will come back here and heal, then finally, when we find out where my father has taken Shana, then we will go there in force and find out what the hell is going on and stop this Virage Embryo."

"Miranda, can I offer you a drink?" Haschel asked, offering her his good arm as they walked to the bar.

"Right, lets move out." Dart ordered, the group headed towards the wall that Haschel had just come through. They found themselves underground, crystals glittering in the light that filtered down from the holes in the roof of the cave.  
"Oooh! Pretty!" Meru cooed, looking at the gems and crystals.

"Lets not get distracted, we have a job to do." Dart called to her.

After a few minutes of traveling, they entered one particularly dark passage and suddenly found themselves suddenly walking on air, miles above the ground.

"Whoa!" Albert grabbed a cloud for safety, while Meru activated her wings.

"Relax. Its all an illusion." Rose told them. Meru deactivated her wings and Albert slowly released his hold on the cloud. As they walked along the air, the saw in the distance a stone ramp leading up and away from them. The walked quickly towards it; however, once they got to it, a screech came from above them. Two bolts of darkness blasted into the air on the sides of the ramp, creating holes that led into darkness.  
"Its Michael." Rose stated, awestruck.

"Its coming around again! Everyone jump!" Dart ordered. Rose and Riku jumped into the hole on the left, while Dart, Kongol, Albert and Meru jumped in the one on the right.

Riku found himself alone with Rose, on the side of a mountain. Above them, on the top of the mountain, came the cries of the same thing that had attacked them.  
"What is that?" Riku asked.  
"That is Michael. My dragon. He was the one who I took the dragoon stone from and who became the most powerful dragon of the Dragon Campaign. And that is who it seems that we have to face. I can't do this alone Riku. Please, help me." Rose gently pleaded.

Emotions swirled within Riku, pride, desire, pity, concern. Whatever it was that ruled supreme did not matter, Riku had already enthusiastically agreed to help Rose. Riku changed keychains to Betrayer. The dark magic that the creature had used against them meant that it was nigh immune to magic.

The climb up was easy and soon they stood on the summit, with Michael in front of them and behind him a cave. Riku charged forward and began his hard blade combo. The attacks just seemed to glance off the creature's armor and dealt no damage to it; Riku retreated to beside Rose.  
"How can we beat that thing, I can't seem to hit it." Riku shouted, his sword arm stinging from the vibrations.  
"It is the strongest dragon. Its scales are harder than that of the Divine Dragon. You can't beat it."

"Surely there is something we can do." Riku and Rose both dodged oppositely, the dragon's tail landing between them.

"After he does his dark beam attack, trust me, you'll know it when you see it, his heart is exposed for a few seconds. You can kill him then. It will take a lot of damage though, he has a strong heart."

Rose jumped and transformed up to dodge the sweep of the dragon's tail.

She landed next to Riku. Michael stared at them. Suddenly, he unfolded his wings.  
"He comes!" Rose shouted. Michael bolted forward, his speed catching Riku by surprise. Michael grabbed both Riku and Rose and flew high up into the air. He let go with his claws and kept going higher. As Riku and Rose began to fall, the dragon flipped above them and began blasting them with thin bolts of darkness. Michael charged up and unleashed a huge beam of darkness; the beam, ten feet in diameter, slammed into the two fighters. Both screamed as the pulses of darkness crashed into them. Riku, noticing their imminent fall, cast both a reverse graviga and an aeroga spell to slow their fall. Despite the pain of the attack, they both managed to land upright, Michael soon followed.  
Rose started, charging at Michael. She stabbed, slashed and danced her way around Michael, aiming at a one spot on Michael's underside. Just as she was finishing, Riku jumped in.

"Demon's Dance!" It wasn't nearly as pretty as when Rose did it, but he still managed to pull the combo off. The heart of Michael spasmed, then stopped. He fell down, dead.

Riku healed them and Rose started walking to the cave.

"Aren't you going to bury him?" Riku asked

"No. I buried him once. This illusion is not him." She turned and walked into the cave.

Riku followed and the sound of boot on stone slowly gave way to a crunch that was most familiar to Riku.

"Sand?" Riku though to himself. They emerged from the tunnel to appear on the beach of Destiny Islands. Riku looked behind him and the ledge wall shimmered.

"What is this place Riku?" Rose asked, "Its so peaceful here."

"This is where I grew up. Destiny Islands. This is the island where me and my friends hung out and played as children."

"Its so beautiful here, so natural." Rose whimsically walked the beach, spinning around to get a better view.

"After we beat Zieg, after we kill Shana, can you take me here?" She asked him.

Riku really wanted to bring her. To take her with him and to just forget everything Merlin had told him and to just...live.

"But what about what you have to do? To keep killing the moon child? Are you going to just let the whole world die?

"I want to, but the truth of it is, you'll die before the next moon child will be born. It would be such a great vacation."

"I want to Rose. I really do." Riku's emotions were flooding his mind, he couldn't think straight. "But I have a job to do and I can't go back until I finish the job. Unlike you, I don't have eternity to spend." Depression smashed into Riku. He couldn't, he wanted to, desperately, but he couldn't.

"Riku." Rose softly called.

Riku sighed, "Come on, I want to show you my island." Riku hoped on top of the shack, and Rose followed suit. They made their way to Riku's pillar-like island.

"Riku!" A voice called. Rose and Riku both stepped onto the island. There was another Riku, sitting on the tree, watching the sea.

"Riku." Riku's clone called to him. "You betrayed, you lied, you stole, you terrorized and you destroyed. Why?"

"I don't have to answer to you. Face me and let us be done with it."

"You would refuse enlightenment?" Riku hopped off the tree and walked towards them, appearing in the heartless armor.

"Fine then, you tell me why I did it." Riku said, summoning his keyblade. Dark Riku countered by summoning his own. They began slowly walking to each other. Rose followed behind Riku, Dragon Buster out and activated.

"Bringing your girlfriend?" Dark Riku asked, "I never would have thought of you having a woman. You were too strong to need one; and you are too corrupt to have one." He sneered.  
"Shut up and die!" Riku shouted, charging the distance. He stabbed and his dark self jumped and landed on the blade, forcing it into the ground.  
"Your open." Dark Riku laughed, swinging down with the dark keyblade. Rose blocked with her blade.

Everyone jumped away from each other. Riku switched his grip on Betrayal and teleported behind his dark self. He plunged Betrayal behind him, only to feel it clash against his counterpart's keyblade.  
"That won't work on me Riku. You have become weak without Ansem." Dark Riku twisted the blade and swung, throwing Betrayal hard to the side, making it difficult for Riku to still hold on.

Dark Riku threw a forceball and Riku held up his left hand to block it. Riku clenched his teeth and kept his arm straight, feeling as the skin burn and split as the forceball wrecked havoc on his hand.

Rose took this opportunity to engage Dark Riku, slashing and stabbing, combos completely forgotten, just attack after attack. Dark Riku kept up; finally casting aeroga, blasting Rose away with a gust of air. Riku charged, intent on using Demon's Dance, only to watch in horror as Dark Riku raised the keyblade overhead.  
"Hidden Door." Dark Riku smiled, then pointed his blade at Rose and the attack began. Riku quickly cast aeroga on Rose, trying to mitigate some of the massive damage that accompanied that attack. However, this opened him up to the full front of Dark Riku's attack. Focusing only a cursory amount of the damage on Rose, Riku was stabbed and burned over and over by his doppleganger. The magic concluded and Riku struggled to stand, using the keyblade to get up. His body bloody and burned. Rose was in better shape and she charged, using Demon's Dance. Dark Riku tried to get out of the way, but the recovery time of that attack made him too open. He fell back, mortally wounded.

He coughed, spitting blood, "You have won. I cannot stop you. Go on, go and complete your job. Remember not to screw up." His body faded.

With Rose in tow, they entered the secret place and found themselves back on the path where they had been attacked, at the base of the stone staircase.

"Lets go back to the inn and wait for everyone there." Rose suggested. She took the lead and Riku watched her as she walked.  
"We make a good team together. I really wish I could take her with me. Hey, I still have a month left. After we kill this guy, maybe I can spend the remaining time with her." Riku thought. "Why do you want to spend that time with her Riku?" He asked himself.

"Riku." Rose said, brining Riku out of his mental reverie. He walked closer and waited for her to continue.

"Riku, what do you think of me?" She asked, Riku heard a bit of apprehension in her voice, right as he felt his heart drop to his feet.  
"What do I think of her? I...I don't know. I think that...Yeah, I think I love her. I love Rose." Riku thought.

And thats when the shit hit the proverbial fan.

A cloud passed between Riku and Rose and when it had passed, Rose was gone.

"Rose. Rose!" Riku called, "Come on Rose, we have to get back. Its not funny." Riku crossed his arms and waited for ten seconds. Worry began to gnaw at him and just before he was about to move, he found himself suddenly on Destiny Islands.

What he saw stunned him. There were heartless crawling all over the beach and Rose was standing right in the middle of them.

A voice whispered to Riku "This is what happens when you love; this is the price that others have to pay." Shadows jumped on to Rose. Riku tried to move, tried to call out to her, but he couldn't do anything, as the shadows descended on her. She screamed, Riku had never heard her scream that way before, as the shadows ripped and tore at her. Riku saw her fall and then she was completely covered in darkness.

"You are to be the judge. You alone. You are not allowed to love another, to befriend another. For this is what will happen. Now and forever, until your task is complete. So it has been written, so it must be done." The voice whispered. It came from all directions and even stranger, from inside his own mind. Suddenly, a heart floated up from the mass of shadows, only to be snatched up by an errant shadow.

"She has passed, you may go." The voice stated, then Riku found himself back in the clouds, Rose's dragoon stone in his hand.

"Rose." He whimpered. "Rose." Riku began to cry, laying down.

"Riku?" He heard a voice from behind him. "Riku!" It was Meru. "Riku! Whats wrong? Where's Rose? Riku!"

* * *

Everyone was sitting in the inn's common room when Meru came through the door, helping a sobbing Riku along.

"Meru. What happened?" Dart ordered.

"I fought my own demon and when I was coming back, I ran across Riku, crying on the ground. Rose was nowhere to be seen."  
"Riku. Riku stay with me here. Tell me what happened. Where is Rose." Dart ordered.

"The shadows, they got her. They got her heart! And I couldn't move as they...Rose!" Riku yelled incoherently.

"Haschel. Please." Albert asked the martial artist.

Riku looked up at Albert, slightly confused, just in time to feel something crash into his head.

"Riku." He heard a voice in the darkness.

"Who is there? Show yourself!" Riku shouted.

"My form is the wind, my face is the sky. You cannot see me. I am here to watch and protect you. I whispered to you; and you did not head me, thus I acted."  
"You were the voice that yelled at me, stopping me from moving? And it was you that did that to Rose? I'll kill you!" Riku shouted, tears slowly trickling down his face.  
"You cannot, accept your fate. I will always be here. You cannot avoid me. Accept."

Riku sprang up in bed, everyone crowded around him; and a huge headache at the back of his head.

"Riku. What happened. Where is Rose." Dart asked, his voice struggling to maintain its strength.

"The shadows..no, you wouldn't understand. She was killed by her trial. I could do nothing to stop it. She's gone and its all my fault. If only I hadn't..." Riku trailed off as he began to sob.

"Pull yourself together. There is time for mourning later. We have a mission and we must fulfill it. Has the darkness dragon accepted you?" Dart said calmly.

"I don't think so sniff. How can you tell?"

Everyone pulled out their dragoon stones and they all began to pulse with light in rhythm with each other. Riku's stone sat there, the darkness complete.

"Well, we have to do it with six then. Come on." Dart commanded calmly.

"There was a beam of light up from my trial. I think it leads into the center." Meru cheered, trying to get everyone out of the depressing mood. She failed.

"Lead the way." Albert offered to Meru.

* * *

They hoped through a portal and found themselves at one end of a large cavern with a very tall ceiling. At the other end was a wall with a large hole in it, with waves of energy flowing into the hole. In front of that wall stood Zieg, with Shana lying on the ground in front of him.

"Father!" Dart shouted, running towards the Red Eye dragoon. The group followed behind him, unsheathing weapons and notching arrows as they ran.  
A wall of fire blocked their path momentarily and Zieg stood in front of them, transformed into dragoon form.

Dart and the others followed suit, during which time Zieg focused fire into himself. When the others had finished, he released it, his normal crystal wings turning into gouts of fire. He pointed his sword at Dart and rocketed forward.

"Final Burst!" He shouted as he blasted past.

Dart reeled from the attack, a large gash opening in his side.

"So this is my father's power." Dart said to no one in particular.

Riku hung back in this fight. Most of the fight was happening 10 feet above the ground and Riku could not attack with enough ferocity to do damage at that height. It was a matter of time, but Zieg was finally knocked down to the ground, bleeding and certainly on his way to death.

"We have stopped you Father. Give up, relinquish your weapon and stone and we will do our best to heal you."

"You think that you have the upper hand? HA! You have just given me victory! Behold, the Moon is ready to accept the Moon Child!" He pointed behind himself, where a bubble had encompassed Shana. The bubble started to float up towards the hole; and green tentacles reached out from the hole, searching.

Zieg stood up, a look of triumph on his face, then he fell face forward, leaving a gaseous form standing in his place.

"What? What are you?" Albert demanded, pointing his spear at the being.

"I am Melbu Frahma and I shall become the Virage Embryo and destroy this world!" The gaseous form floated up to Shana, the tentacles having grabbed her and started pulling her into the hole. Melbu shot a beam of some sort from his had at Shana and she floated back out of the hole. Melbu then floated into the hole himself. In a flash of light, they merged, Melbu becoming a huge man, 10 feet tall, sticking out of the wall at his waist.

"We are the Dragoons! And we will defeat you!" Dart shouted and the fight was on.

All of the dragoons activated their stones; and flew up to hover about ten feet above the ground, putting them at eye level with Melbu. Riku summoned his keyblade; while Melbu started making intricate movements with his large hands.

"Rose storm!" Albert shouted, completing a spell that shrouded them all in protective armor of air. The other dragoons all summoned their dragons, while Dart landed and started charging up the cannon. Melbu was not able to complete whatever he was casting, as 5 dragons descended upon him. He swatted them away from himself, however, he was missing a few fingers and part of the wall had some large claw marks on it.

"Divine Dragon Cannon!" Dart's arm glowed with a bright blueish white light, and then the beam rocketed towards Melbu. Melbu held out one of his hands and after a moment of straining, deflected the beam away, leaving himself open.

"Firaga!" Riku shot three blasts at Melbu's face, only to watch in horror as the god opened its mouth and swallowed all three. He then began moving his hands in a different pattern; and the pattern he had drawn in the air suddenly materialized and glowed with red light. From behind him, a giant meteor somehow appeared, glowing red hot from the heat of entry, as it raced towards the party.

"Split!" Dart shouted; and Riku ran towards Melbu, while the rest of the party scattered in all directions. Meru however, was busy casting a second spell and was not able to run in time.

"Kyaaa!" Meru screamed for a half second and then was completely silent. Riku didn't even turn, instead focusing on attacking Melbu. The god however, merely knocked Riku away with a swat of his hand. Riku blocked the swing, but the force behind it still sent him flying. Haschel flew forward and began the same combo that he had done on Riku and Lloyd. As Haschel charged up the electric blast, Melbu reached out with one hand towards him. Haschel fired and Melbu's left hand was forced to block the blow. The right hand flew out and grabbed at Haschel, missing as the nimble Dragoon flew out of the way. However, the first hand finally broke through the electric blast and went for Haschel's unprotected back. Haschel turned just in time to see the long fingers close on him, only to stop as Kongol interspersed himself between Haschel and Melbu. His ax was lodged all the way into the wrist of the god, splitting the index and middle finger apart. Kongol pulled on the ax, but to no effect, it was firmly lodged. Melbu's other hand finally made its appearance and started swinging towards Kongol. The giant tried again at the ax; and the weapon started to pull free, but the injured hand closed around Kongol's body, just in time for the right hand to take off the protruding head.

"Damnit! Come on people!" Dart shouted, charging up the cannon again. Miranda launched a quick volley of arrows as Albert summoned his dragon. One of the arrows caught Melbu right below his left shoulder joint and suddenly the left arm went slack. Albert summoned his dragon, which then buffeted Melbu with wind, slamming his head against the wall.

Riku attacked the base again with Demon's Dance. Melbu reeled under the assault.

The god took his good arm and swung it rapidly many times in a circle around himself. A flash of red and Riku noticed a near transparent shield surrounded Melbu.

Haschel attacked, but he was sent flying back by the shield.

"Damn!" Haschel shouted, righting himself midair.

Miranda took one of her "special" arrows, that she had gotten from Shana via the dark elf; and launched it. It too was stopped by the shield, but instead of clattering to the ground, it exploded. The shield's color changed to blue at the point of explosion, then slowly changed back.

Melbu used this time to cast a healing spell on himself, healing the wound from Kongol and fixing his arm, leaving only a few claw marks, and missing fingers.

"Divine Dragon Cannon!" Dart shouted. The beam of light was stopped by the shield, then broke through it, taking a small part out of Melbu's side.

Instead of crying out in pain however, Melbu instead began with another spell. The ground began to shake and Riku had difficulty maintaining his balance. Albert swooped down to pick Riku up off the unsteady ground; and then jinked right to avoid a pillar of rock that shot up where he had just been. Riku cast aeroga on himself and was about to do the same for Albert, when Albert suddenly flew up. He then began casting a spell, when another pillar of rock rocketed up, then stopped about halfway, sending a small spear of rock right into Albert. Albert didn't notice; and the spear went up through his left leg, up through the chest, finally going all the way through. Albert's wings spasmed a couple of times, then the spear, having lost all of its vertical velocity, began to fall. Albert's body and the spear hurtled toward the ground. With a thud, Albert hit the ground and bounced up; the spear slammed into his chest and send him into the ground, the tip of the bloody spear sticking out of his chest, the rest all the way in the ground. Dart flew at the god and began a furious combo with his sword, slicing and slashing and thrusting into Melbu's face. He cleared out of the way just as Miranda shot another explosive arrow right at Melbu's face. Melbu's arm lashed out and deflected the arrow away, the resulting explosion harmless. However, Melbu's face was bloody and damaged, his right cheek split open and one of his eyes shut and blood leaking out from behind the eyelid. Haschel performed his dragoon combination again; and while Melbu reeled under the assault, Haschel landed and returned to his human form. Melbu went on the offensive and cast a spell aimed at Haschel. The martial artist tried to run out of the way, but found his legs encased in ice. Three pillars of ice surrounded him; and began radiating cold. The ice crept up Haschel's sweating body, the sweat freezing on contact with the air, until he was completely encased in ice. The three pillars suddenly fell inward, crushing Haschel.

"Come on! Attack me!" The god laughed, as his skin began to regenerate itself.

Riku cast graviga on Melbu's arm, hoping to rip it off at the join. The arm sagged and the bones snapped, but the skin did not break.

"Now Miranda! Hit the arm!" Dart shouted. Miranda nodded, knocked and fired an arrow at the shoulder. A direct hit. Melbu's arm thumped as it hit the ground and blood began pouring out of the wound. Melbu grabbed at the stump to slow the blood and with a quick healing spell, the blood stopped.

"You have angered me! Feel my wrath! Breath of Oblivion!" Melbu opened his mouth and a ball of darkness as big as Riku's powered up firaga formed and then launched itself. It streaked towards Miranda, so fast that she didn't even think of dodging before she was obliterated.

"Divine Dragon Cannon!" Dart aimed the cannon right for Melbu's head and fired. The beam of light blasted towards Melbu, who turned his head at the last second, losing his ear.

"Now you die. Like father, like son." Melbu began moving his one hand in long lazy circles, going faster and faster. His hand stopped precisely pointed upwards and when Riku looked at Dart, he was a statue, the last bit of his hair turning to stone. Melbu took his arm and crushed Dart. Shards of stone scattered. Riku was all alone, facing the absolute power of the Virage Embryo, the god of Destruction.

"So, it is just you and I left. Well, transform Dragoon. I wonder why you held back against me. Were you too weak? Was the lose of Rose too much for you? Or were you too arrogant?"  
"You bastard!" Riku formed every bit of darkness that he had and threw a huge forceball at Melbu. The god didn't even flinch.

"What a strange creature you are. You are steeped in darkness, but yet you do not use the dragoon stone and plunge into the madness. Why?"

Riku was breathing heavy, leaning on the keyblade. "I wasn't chosen."

"You weren't chosen? Amusing. If you tell me exactly how Rose died, I believe that you and I can come to an agreement." the awesome creature laughed.

Riku was confused, "Why do you want to know and what sort of agreement?"

"Its quite simple really. I am a god, but I am not omniscient. Thus, since I have ultimate power, I desire knowledge. You have knowledge that I do not. I would bargain for it."

"What do you have to offer me? You have already said that you will destroy the world. Thus there is nothing here that you can give me."

"Really? Are you sure? Because then I will not know; and you will die." The god shrugged his shoulders; and raised a hand overhead.

Riku racked his brain, trying to come up with something. Wait. He had it.

"I have a proposal for you. Wait one month from now to destroy the world. Then you can do what you want." Riku offered.

"Tying up loose ends, or... no matter. That is not too terrible. I accept. Tell me of Rose's demise."  
"One thing though, I also wish to not be killed. Destroy the world, all you want, but you may not kill me."

"Damn, caught me. Done." Melbu laughed.

"She, I was punished by a higher being. I was not allowed to love. And I loved her. And so she was punished. She was taken to another world and killed there."

"Taken where, by who, and how?"

"To another world. I already told you. And I don't know by who, maybe a fallen. And I did not see how she was taken."

"Well, I feel cheated, but I see no reason to go back on my word. One month mortal. Enjoy the rest of your pitiful existance." Melbu closed his hands together and in a flash of light, Riku found himself at the base of the tree.

"I said nothing about giving you transportation." Melbu's voice echoed in Riku's head.

"Fuck you." Riku thought to himself. And teleported to himself to the portal entrance of Ulara.

"Best to be polite and enter through the front door." He thought to himself and activated the portal.

Nothing happened.

Riku tried again. Still nothing.  
"Thats odd. Well, I guess the front door doesn't work, time for the window."  
Riku warped into the city; and was appalled at what he saw. The entire city was on fire. There were dead Winglies all over the city.

"What the hell?" Riku asked aloud.

"Who is there?" A voice called from one of the bushes.

"Come out. I am Riku. Who are you? What has happened. What is going on?"

A small child crawled out of the bushes, "Hi Mr. Riku. I'm Cali."  
"Cali, tell me what happened." Riku tried to act friendly, but the child was very perceptive and shied away from him.

"Don't know. Lots of boom booms and then cold and then dark. Very very dark. Scary. Like you."  
"Ouch." Riku thought to himself. Cali wasn't helping him. So he headed further into the city. It was strangely quiet, save for the crackle of flame as the city burned around him. He walked towards Charle's residence, if anyone could have survived this mess, she had to be one of them. At the entrance to her house, Riku found a dozen bodies on the floor, all of their faces frozen in expressions excruciating pain. Stepping over them, he walked in to Charle's room, to find the old woman plastered to the wall, with a hole in her chest.

"What the hell happened here?" Riku shouted to the air.

"Hehe." a sick laugh came from the shadows and Dagon walked out. His normally grey robes had been morphed into a strange almagam of black, accented with a silvery blue.

"I happened. Riku, how could you turn your back on the darkness? This power is incredible! I can feel the strength coursing through me!"  
"And what about the price? Do you feel your heart slipping away from you? Do you feel evil?"  
"Yes! And I relish it!" Dagon shouted.

"Well, if things could get any worse, now is the time." Riku thought.

"Now Riku, it's time for you to return to darkness." Dagon held out his hand.

"I'll pass." Riku said and teleported behind Dagon, summoning the keyblade and stabbing into Dagon.

"Good try." Dagon laughed, as Riku's blade crashed into a block of ice.

"Ice armor. Shit this guy is good with the cold." Riku thought, jumping away from Dagon. The fighters faced each other.

"You could never have the darkness Riku. You were too weak. Too afraid."

"You are too arrogant. You can't really hope to defeat me." Riku took out the the Ethereal Edge keychain and slapped it on to the keyblade. The Betrayal keychain fell off and the blade faded into its translucence. Riku caught it with his off hand and pocketed it.

"Firaga!"Riku shouted, pointing the keyblade at Dagon as the fireball raced forward.

"Iceball!" The fireball disappeared in a cloud of steam.

"So you are inventing your own spells huh?" Riku asked, circling around.

"So you are not?" Dagon replied, circling as well.

Riku threw his left hand forward, just as Dagon threw his right hand forward. Balls of darkness streaked towards each other and collided. A vertical eruption of darkness pulled all light towards it.

The darkness subsided, leaving both fighters facing each other.

"Well, it looks like this is a tie." Dagon told Riku.

"You give up to early. Graviga"

Dagon struggled to stand, as the crushing force brought him to his knees.

"No! I refuse to die here!" Dagon grabbed the floor and sank through the ground, into the puddle of darkness.

"Damn him." Riku growled. He punched a wall, the thin wood breaking under the strain.

Riku looked at the wall and noticed a calendar. Time had apparently distorted itself again and Riku had only two weeks left here, instead of four.

* * *

Riku spent those two weeks warping across the continent, trying to find any trace of Dagon, but no one had seen the Winglie.

"I guess now is the time to decide. This world will be destroyed anyway, so I might as well break it open. Its not like it will hurt anything."

Riku walked up to the Crystal Palace gates and there above the doorway was the keyhole, still closed. Remembering how he had unlocked a world before, Riku jumped with the keyblade straight into the keyhole. With a twist, he heard the distinctive click and pulled the keyblade out, falling to the ground and lading on his feet.

"You! What are you doing?" One of the guards had noticed his acrobatics and had come to investigate.

Riku jumped up again and slashed at the keyhole. Shards of crystal fell as the keyhole become indistinct as it broke.

"You! Stop! You are under arrest!" The guard shouted, motioning for more to follow him as he rushed at Riku. Riku yawned and started running up the side of the palace, using a small gravity spell to alter the gravity so that he was able to accelerate up the wall. He perched up on the top, surveying the city and looked upon the world that he had just doomed to destruction. Riku just shook his head, looked up into the sky and sensed a bright light pulsating. He could see it even though it was day. Taking it as a sign, Riku reached out and dragged his finger down, ripping a hole to this new world.

"Gah! What are those things?" A soldier screamed and then was silent.

* * *

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

A/N: This is the last chapter for a while. KH2 is sitting in a box on my desk, and I have promised not to open it until this is posted. Which it just was. Which means...

Insert Temporary Hiatus Here


	27. Sidestory: Shadow

Disclaimer: I own many thigns, the concepts of "Great one, lesser one, Power, and who am i kidding. Feel free to steal. Just let me see your work when its done. Is that borrwoing then? Hm...

Sidestory of Sora. Because you can't kill the main character of the game that you are fanficing off camera. Thats rude. Shoot, I ruined the ending.

Sidestory: Shadow

The Great One lead us from the from the distant prison, where the mouse and master had imprisoned us with themselves. The master betrayed us, as the Great One knew he would, and let us free of our prison. We that were left congregated together, and began to follow the master's trail. It led to a world, now protected again by a barrier. The Great One brought us together, and together, we destroyed the barrier around the world. We waited, hoping to throw the master off guard. We succeeded, the Great One's plan worked perfectly. We moved in packs, and overcame solitary prey. For months, no one knew of our existance, and we slowly grew in strength. However, just as the Great One predicted, we made a mistake, and a flyer got away. The Great One punished that pack by making them stay behind, with 1 in 20 of the newly created ones. They were to harass the master, and lead him into complacency.

The great one took us to the master's world, and there, we used the same tactics as we had done in the world of beasts. We snuck into the house as it was empty, and when its owner returned, the walls became living shadow. A few fought back. One tried to harm us by throwing a ball at us. I popped it with my talon, before liberating his heart. Two others struggled, though again, none us us perished. Their hearts were strong, though their tools were weak, and harmed us not. The princesss attacked us, and we could do naught but flee her. Her child though, we took with us as we left, and then let the Great One liberate his heart. We then began to strike at two targets simultaneously, so that the bearer of the key would be forced to choose, and by the time he had concluded his thoughts, both would be ours. Finally, only he and the princess remained. The Great One himself stepped forward to challege the bearer. As they fought, we slowly joined the battle, diffusing our selves through the ground. As more and more of us joined, the darkness became deeper, and deeper. Until finally, the bearer was trapped. He could not move his legs, and thus was stuck. More and more of us piled on, until he was struggling to keep his head above the darkness. At that time, the rest of us found the keyhole; we charged in and devoured the heart of that world. As the Great One told us, the princess was sent away, to perhaps another world. For it was beyond our power to touch her. The Great One, sensing how the world was finally ours, slowly began to twist the bearer's head. Slowly, it began to turn, then with a joyous snap, it hung limp. Before the bearer expired, we released the bearer, then fell upon him, bringing his heart to join our cause. Two Powers were born that day, as the bearer's heart and the heart of that world joined our cause together. The Great One did not let the world die yet. The Power of the world worked to keep the world alive long enough so that the Great One would become strong again, after he was severly weakened by the bearer. Near the end of his recuperation, we felt a strange occurance at the beach. Currious, the Power of Key, as it called itself, traveled there, bidding us to keep to the shadows. The Power assumed his original form, and approached this strange woman, who was a creature of darkness, yet a darkness different than ours. The Power asked her who she was, and so their conversation began. Soon after however, we felt the master approach. We feared, for the master's coming could mean the destruction of the Great One, and maybe even a Power. However, when he arrived, it was as if only his spirit had come. We dare not apporach, instead, the Power ordered us to devour the woman. She did not even have time to raise her sword, we took her to ground, and then liberated her heart. She became a Lesser One, but strangely, the master did not move to stop us, nor did he even say anything. Suddenly, he disappeared, just as he had come. Shortly after, we all stopped. A note, the most beautiful note we had ever heard, struck through us all. The Great One gathered us, and we abandoned the world, and followed the note to a world. The Great One told us to conquer it all, and as quickly as possible. We spread and multiplied acoross the face of the world. It was truly huge. No world we had come to so far had been so large. We desceneded upon the world, and drained it of all its inhabitants. A great and powerful force watched over the world, and it and the great one fought, and the great one liberated its heart, creating another Power. The note, the harmonious, wonderful note, called us to a cold corner of the world. There, we found the keyhole, open to our embrace. The world was ours, and we did release it. So great was the Power released, that we did not yet know what had happened. In our blindness, we came upon another world, one kept in perpetual twighlight. We were changed, changed for the stronger.

Neo.


	28. Castle of Strength and Knowledge

Sorry for the delay. We had a plan, and as you know, plans only work if your name starts with "G" and ends in "od".

Special Thanks to: Suppish for the inspiring review.

Disclaimer: I own a knife. Or two. Or four. Regardless, I do not own Riku or Kingdom Hearts.

**Castle of Strength and Knowledge**

Riku lifted his hand to the pulsing star, and opened the portal.

Riku looked around, there were seven men in plate mail around him, all with pikes leveled at his chest.

"Don't move." The one to his left said, he had a red feather in his helm, marking him as the leader.

"So who am I waiting for?"

"The queen. Now quiet until she gets here." The leader adjusted his grip on his pike.

Riku looked around. He was standing in the middle of a grassy courtyard. There were many hedges, of different animals all around. Surrounding three sides of the enclosure was a large stone wall, far taller than Riku could hope to jump, at least 20 feet tall. On that wall, he noticed other armored guards, they were armed with crossbows, and all were leveled at him as well. On the fourth side, was a huge structure. It had large columns and was about 50 feet tall. There were five levels in all, with the top three being nothing more than small windows looking out onto the enclosure, with the bottom one being three times as tall as the others, and supported by large columns. At one side in the stone wall, there was a wooden door, and Riku's eyes nearly popped out of his head when he saw the seal on the door. It was one large circle with two smaller ones attached at one end. The exact same symbol as on the original keyblade. Just then the doors opened, and a creature in a pink dress walked out. She was followed by two other creatures, a duck and a giant something, with a dog like nose. Riku blinked, and then his mind recognized what he was seeing. The creature in the dress was the same as King Mickey, complete with the same head design. However, her fur was grey, unlike Mickey's which had been black. The two following her were none other than Donald and Goofy. They had aged considerably, Donald used his staff more as a crutch now, and Goofy's fur had greyed, and was starting to whiten. They could not recognize him with his cloak on and his hood up, he was curious as to how they would react.

The mouse in the dress approached, staying well behind her guards.

"Who are you, servant of darkness, and why have you come to Disney Castle?"

"I am no servant of darkness. Darkness is my tool. Who am I addressing?"

"You will answer the queen's questions." The leader of the knights slapped Riku's side with the flat of his blade. Riku didn't even notice.

"We are Queen Minnie. Guard, remove his cloak, so that we may see his face."

The leader lifted his pike to Riku's head, then tried to hook the edge of the cloak with his pike. Riku instead sunk through a portal, appearing in front of Queen Minnie. The guards were completely dumbfounded, and did not see Riku in front of Minnie. Donald and Goofy rushed forward to protect the queen, but Riku lifted his hood, bowed, and spoke somberly, "Queen Minnie, I am Riku, once companion and ally to your husband, regret to inform you that your husband, King Mickey perished in Kingdom Hearts."

"A little historical revision never hurt anyone" Riku thought, "Besides, saying 'I killed your husband' is a bad thing to say to a queen in her own castle."

Queen Minnie stood stock still, then let out a sigh, "I knew, in my heart of hearts, that he had died. Thank you for bringing me the news. Jorgio! Jorgio!" Her voice perked up at saying his name, and soon another, younger, mouse ran up to them, he was dressed in what reminded Riku of the servant's clothes at Stephan's castle.

"Well Jorgio, with my husband dead, we don't need to hide our love any more."

Riku closed his eyes as the two mice starting kissing each other. Micky had been a good friend, and the fact that his wife was fucking some other mouse in the castle... well, thats her business. Riku had his own business to deal with. He started walking into the castle (that being the only exit out of the courtyard.)

"Oh wait, Riku! Please, would you be our guest? We have a spare room available, though I admit it hasn't been used in many years, and may be a little dusty. Tonight at dinner you can tell me about why you are here, after you have refreshed yourself from your travels. Liutenant, please lead Mr. Riku here to the 22nd guest chamber."

The knights sheethed their swords, and one of them, with a blue plume on his helmet walked forward past Riku. He turned, "Follow me sir." The knight led Riku into the huge castle. After walking into the castle, they immediately began asceneded a torchlit flights of stairs. The knight said nothing, and Riku did not feel the need to break any silence. As they reached the second floor, Riku glimpsed a huge bookcase through the door opposite the stairs. The knight however, continued going up. On the fourth floor, he left the stairwell and opened the door opposite it. A torrent of dust flooded out of the chamber, and Riku saw what looked like a broom rush forward, using the bristles to move itself along, and slam the door.

"It seems that your room is not yet ready sir. They will be done soon." The knight deadpaned.

"What was the room on the second floor that we passed earlier?"

"That was the east library sir. It contains volumes about history."

Riku turned and started going downstairs. The knight followed behind him. Riku entered into the library, and was suprised by its size. While the bookcase had been huge, there were only three of them, and a small reading table. There was a ladder with wheels too, but it was dilapidated, some of the rungs were missing or broken. After looking around, Riku went to the bookshelf on the left, and started reading the titles. _The Coming of the King, Atlantis, The Jungle Book, The Last Princess, Robin Hood, A Christmas Carol, The Revolution of Time, Steamboat Willie, Anastasia. _Each volume was easily the span of Riku's outstretched palm.

"These don't look like history books." Riku thought; he reached for the first book, _The Coming of the King_, and as he touched it, it crumpled to dust. Riku looked over at the knight, who made no indication of suprise. _The Jungle Book, the Last Princess, Robin Hood_, all of them turned to dust. The entire shelf of the bookcase now contained just a large dust pile. Riku looked over the pile of dust that had once been books, now destroyed by his hand. He felt as if he should feel something, some emotion, sorrow, or sadness. Instead it was mere annoyance that the books hadn't bothered to keep long enough for him to even get an idea about them.

"Does this normally happen?" Riku asked the guard.

"Not to my knowledge sir. No one has used this library in years." The knight replied, completely deadpan.

Riku re-examined the room, and noted that there were other places where there were holes in the wall of books, and dust piles in some of them.

"The brooms should have finished now sir." The guard mentioned, and his lack of emotion was begining to grate on Riku. The man proceeded to leave the room and ascend the stairs.

Riku shook his head, and followed up, but there was one title that he couldn't get out of his head: _The Lion King_. Somehow the title just would not leave Riku alone.

"We are here sir." The knight said.

Riku woke from his reverie to see a broom, with its brush split in two, walking along, with two arms sticking out from the middle holding buckets. It bowed to the knight, and then scampred off down the hall. Riku ented his new chamberroom, and was amazed with it. Rich fabrics covered the enourmous four poster bed, and the floor was covered in an extremly soft rug, that covered the top of Riku's dark boots. The colors were rich golds and reds, with lots of purple strewn about. Riku removed his cloak and draped it over a thick maroon chair, and partook of some fruit that had been laid out in a silver bowl on a small serving table. There was a large wooden dresser, that showed to be empty, as well a full lenght mirror along the wall. The walls had been draped with great tapestries, showing mice with great books and large scepters, holding court over large multitudes of other animals. There was a window, and Riku looked outside to see the garden that he had entered from, and beyond that a sprawling village of red roofed houses, Beyond that, Riku could get a glimpse of what appearered to be a rising grey spire, of similar stone to the wall that surrounded the castle.

A knock at the door interrupted Riku's admiration of the scenery.

"Mr. Riku sir? Its me, Goofy. Uh, yuk I just wanted to see how you were doin! Oh, and in about an hour or so the queen will be having dinner uh yuk. She would sure like you to join her!" Goofy said in his downright odd and way too cheerful voice.

Riku listend with half an ear. He really did not want to tell the queen about Mickey, especially after hearing about Gorge or somebody. So he decided to tell her

"Well your majesty, Micky and I were trapped on the other side of Kingdom Hearts as you know. There, we fought many heartless, and in the battle, Mickey fell. The keyblade chose me, and with its aid I defeated what I had thought were all the heartless. I then made my escape from Kingdom Hearts, and have begun traveling the worlds."

"Thank you Riku for telling me. Care for some asparagus? Its in season." Minnie said, her husband's death having absolutely no effect on her countenance. But what was far more distressing to Riku was that they did not serve meat here, only vegetables. And while Riku was not a complete carnivore, meat was meat, and vegetables were for rabbits. Or mice. Which, while explaining the lack of meat, did little to alleviate Riku's hunger.

"Thank you." They made small talk, Riku trying to eat as much as he could, but still not being able to alleviate the gnawing pain in his stomach. Finally, he was too full to eat anything else, and over a flavored shaved ice dish, Minnie asked him why he had come.

"Well, I'm on a journey. Just sort of travelling around, seeing the worlds."

"Thats wonderful Riku, how has your journey been so far?"

"It has been...harder than I had been led to beleive. I already lost someone important to me, and it was all my fault at that. But I seem to have no choice but to continue." Riku said sadly, trying to contain his emotion while still remembering Rose.

"I understand Riku. We all lose people that we care about. Though I don't think its your fault."

"She didn't have a strange being that talks to me in my head show Rose getting killed and pointing out how it was my fault." Riku thought to himself grimly, but let her continue.

"A lot of people who journey find their way here. We even have a library where we keep some of the records of those people. You are welcome to them if you so desire. I heard that you were intrested in the library of History."

"The library where all the books turn to dust? That is not much of a library."  
"They are falling apart? Thats really too bad. Mickey liked going in there somtimes, though I don't go there so I don't know how it is. I personally like the library on fashion products and some of the romance novels of my predecessors."

Riku left that to hang, finished his desert, and then excused himself to his room. He took off his shirt and pants, noticing that they were getting threadbare in some places. And that small holes was developing where his elbows and kness were. He took a bath, then went to sleep.

The queen was indisposed when Riku woke up, so he had a breakfast of fruit alone. He then set out to explore the castle. What suprised him the most, as he wandered the halls, was how empty the place seemed to be. In Stephan's castle, there were guards everywhere, but here, he couldn't find any, though he did find lots of statues of armor at intervals throughout the halls. He found that only bedrooms had doors, while libraries and other public rooms just had doorways. Using this as a guide, he found numerous libraries, all of them far larger than the library of History, and like the library of History, there were unmarked. However, the books inside gave him a pretty good clue as to what was contained therein. _Fashion Do's and Don'ts _was certainly not the library that had the other people on journeys. Finally, in the third floor, in a rather dusty area of the castle, he found a library full of books. None of the books had titles. "Perfect for diaries" Riku thought, thinking of Kairi's diary that she had kept as a child. Riku began going through the books, and indeed, they were journals of people who traveled the worlds, much like himself. Though the ones that he had skimmed through so far all seemed to travel by gummi ship. The next one however, stopped him short.

"'Ready, Set, GO!' said Kairi, and that was how my journey began, with a race against Riku, a race to a great door. A journey of a key, and how that key gave me the power to reform a betrayer, save a dozen worlds, destroy another, and to meet new friends."

"This is Sora's!" Riku almost shouted, instead keeping merely letting a grunt out through his clenched teeth.

"Reform a betrayer. Well, at least he finally figured out what happened." Riku though, as he continued reading.

The book ended with Sora meeting Alice, just as the trial for her life was about to start. Riku closed the book and set it down, and looked at the rest of the books in the row. All of them had the same spine, a broad red stripe down the middle with a blue and green stripe swirling around it, all set on a golden backround. Riku suddenly found in his hands the next book.

Riku set down the second book. Sora had just left Monstro, and Riku saw how his friend saw him, as a rival, not as an enemy. Riku expected to feel something, regret, anger, but nothing came to him, his heart was dead. Riku put the book back, and began reading the next.

The text began swimming before Riku's eyes, and he saw himself there, at the battle over Kairi, only now in Sora's shoes, fighting himself. He could feel the strength of Sora's conviction, and at the same time, felt the strength of his own pride. His strength was far stronger. He felt certain that he should have won, and felt as each slash hit how close he had truly come. How did he lose? He shouldn't have. The darkness. It held him back, and propelled him forward. He let it control him, when he should have controlled it. It is a tool, and not a master. Had he done that, he was sure that he would have won, and then he wouldn't have had to make attonement. He wouldn't have had to...suddenly, the words collapsed into nothing, and Riku saw no more.

A/N: While Beta is getting settled into college life, I'm updating. And you can thank Suppish for guilting me with a review to get me to rush this into production before the month ends. Its a little short, but I was drinking from my cup of evil today, and so i'm ending it here.


	29. Running on Empty

Disclaimer: I do not own Kingdom Hearts, and all characters belong to their respective owners. Astaroth does not think that the owners are flat enough though --Pulls out Grand Maul...--

Astaroth belongs to Namco, not me.

Thanks to Rablagon, for faithfully reviewing. And thanks to no one else, for not reviewing. As always, thanks to Beta for kicking my butt when needed. (in this case not in a literary necessity)

**Running on Empty  
**

"Protect her." Riku said, as the giant doors closed, "And bring me breakfast."

"No I didn't." Riku thought, then suddenly, he found himself awake in his room in Mickey's castle. He felt extremely weak, similar to when he had spent all his magic, but even worse, as if all his physical strength had left as well.

"I was in the library reading, and then... How did I get here?" Riku thought to himself. The sunlight was strong today, and the brightness hurt his eyes. He tried raising himself to sit up, but for some reason his arms just didn't seem strong enough.

"This is bad."

It was then that Riku felt the pain. It felt as if his stomach was trying to wrap itself around every organ in him, strangling him with the pain. It made Riku's vision blur for a brief period of time.

Riku sat there in agony, waiting for the pain to end, for what seemed like hours. Finally, a black mouse wearing a white apron entered the room, carrying a long flexible tube of some kind, a funnel and a very large cup of something. She moved into the room, not seeming to notice Riku, and put the funnel and cup on the side of his bed, then approached his head with the tube. She then looked at him and saw him staring back at her; she gasped, dropping the tube on the floor.

"Food." Riku tried to say, though it came out more as "Fuuuu."

"Hold on, I'll get the doctor." She said, before running out of the room. The smell of whatever was in the cup caught his attention, and he reached his hand out to the handle of the cup. Grasping it, he slowly dragged it back towards him. Peering inside, he found that there was some sort of grey-yellow mush in the cup. His eyes told him that it was disgusting, but his stomach demanded that he eat all of it. Riku tested his grip, to make sure the cup wouldn't slip out in his weakness, and then slowly, painfully lifted the cup to his mouth. The taste was...exquisite. He drank more and more of the the mush, trying to get as much into his stomach as he could. Finally Riku was full, though it seemed to him that he had only taken a few droughts of the stuff. When he looked down, he realized that he really only had taken a few gulps of the mush, judging by how much was left still in the cup. Riku set the cup on his bedside dresser, then leaned back and fell promptly asleep, only to be woken by gentle hands on his shoulder, shaking him awake.

"Riku, Riku wake up. Do you know where you are?" The face attached to the voice was none other than an old duck, her white feathers frayed and her grip weak.

"I'm in the room that the queen has given me." Riku replied. It was not his room. He had no room, and his home was denied to him.

"Good, we were so worried about you. You went missing for a few days, and then one of the servants found you in the library, passed out on the floor. We rushed you to your bed, and have been feeding you now for the past week. We were afraid you would never wake up."

"How long until I have my strength back?"

"A week, maybe two, it will depend on how much..."

"Now leave me." Riku cut the doctor off.

She left without another word, leaving Riku alone with the sun in his eyes, and a bowl of soup on the counter. He slowly, painfully removed the covers, and found himself clothed in a thin white robe. This was the first time that he had worn any clothes other than his black outfit in almost two years. The white robe rubbed against his skin, and Riku felt each fiber trying to tear a piece of his skin out. He stumbled towards the dresser, and pried the doors apart, his muscles nearly failing him. Inside, he found his boots, which had been cleaned and shined; the rest of his outfit was gone.

"Where is it?" Riku tried to ask, but the sound refused to come.

Stumbling over to the soup bowl, Riku took a few drinks of the lukewarm liquid. It moistened his throat enough for him to call out, "Maid!"

"You called my lord?" The maid, another, much younger and prettier duck said, opening the door a few seconds after Riku had called.

"Where are my clothes?" Riku asked, his voice straining, his anger barely contained.

"We, we took them to be washed my lord. They were in need of much mending and repair. They will be ready by tomorrow my lord." She said, a quiver to her voice.

"Get out." Riku said.

"What my lord, I didn't hear you." The maid said, stepping closer, as Riku's voice had cut out.

"Get out!" Riku yelled, backhanding her across the face.

The maid fell back. Then, with tears streaming down her face, ran out the door, slamming it behind her.

Now that he was alone, Riku removed the offensive cloth. How dare they take his clothes. If they needed mending he would do it, not them. He took another couple of spoonfuls of soup, and examined his hair. Someone had taken the liberty of brushing it, returning it to the same state as it was when he was at Kingdom Hearts, so many years ago. He hated them for it. It was his hair, and his to do with as he pleased. Pride surged within him, and with it, came anger. Riku quashed those emotions, forcing them back, and after a couple more spoonfuls of soup, went to sleep.

"..."

* * *

Riku awoke the next morning to find his clothes neatly hung in the dresser, along with another outfit that seemed to be a perfect copy. He tried on the copy, and it fit him perfectly, as well as the color being a perfect match. It even had the socket in the middle to fit the stone required for his spell. Looking back at the original, the stone was still there, though it seemed to list to one side on the hanger. Examining it, Riku found Rose's Dragoon stone in one of the pockets. Riku turned it over, examining it. It still was dead in his hand, and no spark rested within it. It was pure darkness. How dare they take it from him. 

"Perfect" Riku thought, and with a little alteration, put the stone into the socket on his new clothes. Riku then headed straight back into the library, to continue his research, Rose's stone resting against his chest. There were tears in his eyes, though he did not notice them.

Riku again scanned the books, looking for something of interest. All of the books had no title, but each set had a unique color. He went through bookcase after bookcase. It reminded him of the library in Hollow Bastion in its size. Tucked back in one corner, he found an entire bookcase of books, all jet black. The top row all had a single white line running down the spine, while 2/3rds of the next shelf had a single line that waved back and forth. The rest of the shelf, plus half of the next shelf, had two parallel lines running down each book. Down and down the bookcase, each set different from each other. At the bottom of the bookcase, there was a completely empty shelf. Grabbing the last book in the last series, Riku flipped to the end of the book.

"And so, I abandon the counsel of the Voice, and go to meet my beloved Marian in Nottingham."

Riku furrowed his brow in confusion. He didn't know what to expect, but this was not at all what he had thought of. He put the book back, and grabbed the beginning book in the set, the first of three, which bore the design of two opposing quarter-arcs in an oval along the spine:

"My name is Kerba, self-named Deathlord, traveler of worlds, damned and cursed, and alone. I was born in a world that no longer exists, to parents that abandoned me in my crib. I betrayed my friends, betrayed my allies, abandoned them, and found myself damned and cursed with a destiny I neither asked for, nor am equipped to perform. And yet, I will continue to persevere, and do my best to fulfill what destiny has given me. I will chronicle my journeys here, as my predecessors have done before me. I will succeed where they have failed."

"My first world, after my release from prison, was to a strange world, even compared to the many that I had come to in my previous travels. The whole world seemed encircled by one river, that constantly flowed round and round, without end. And the people and things of this world had been completely drained of color. There was only black, white, and shades between. It was here that first I broke the only rule of world travel, 'Though Shalt not meddle in the affairs of other worlds.' My Tenure requires me to remain there for a year, and so I was forced to meddle, at the very least to talk with them to eat food. I surprised them, they thought of me as some sort of demon. They left food out at night, hoping that the demon would accept their offering and leave them. And so I did. The food they offered was bland, though edible, despite its lack of color. I found myself given an opportunity, to punish those who were evil in this world, and to protect those who were good. The mayor gave less food than the poorest beggar, and I found him, after some study, to be an evil, greedy man. When next he offered food, I took the bowl of food, and, after removing the giblets from his cavity, stuffed th bowl, with its contents untouched, into him. The people at first did not understand my message, instead offering more food. I then targeted the prostitute, she who caused unnatural lust in the husbands of good women. Her offering I shoved into her hole of iniquity, and placed her head in the bowl, and finally, the people understood. The people feared me, and in their fear they worked with each other, and became good to each other. Theft ended overnight, and to every husband there was but his wife. The world was clean, and so it remained, until after my year, I sealed it, preventing the Hungries from taking the world's heart."

* * *

The book fell from Riku's hands. They were shaking uncontrollably, and his vision was blurring, and fading in some places. He had the sense to sit down, before darkness completely engulfed him, and he passed out. 

"What was it that I found?" Riku asked himself, standing in the middle of a endless plain, with grey ground, and grey sky. As if in answer, 3 vaguely human shapes rose up out of the ground, 2 white and pasty, 1 black and glossy.

"Who are you?" Riku demanded of the shapes, they all stood there, slowly swaying, not uttering a sound.

"I demand you answer me! Who are you?"

They forms swayed.

"If you will not answer me, then leave." Riku ordered. The forms slowly slid back into the ground.

"What were those?"

"And what did I find?"

* * *

A/N: Sorry for the ultra long delay, but you know, life plays funny tricks on you. Like stealing what remains of your life. I also apologize for the brevity, I think I'm going back to the smaller size chapters. More opportunities for cliffhangers, and more likely to get them done "on time". 


	30. The Path Well Traveled

A/N: Most of my creative energies have been spent on my chronicle that I run for my suite mates in college. This fic is getting the short end of the stick. On the upside, the distance has given me clarity of purpose.

Special Thanks to Rablagon and Broken Horn.

Disclaimer: I do not own Kingdom Hearts, and all characters belong to their respective owners, which is not you, so stop wishing it were so.

**The Path Well Traveled**

"Master Riku, please get up."

Riku opened his eyes slowly, thankfully it was night, the darkness comforting him. He was again back in his room, though this time he was still wearing his old clothes. Next to him was the same nurse duck as before. And again, he felt weak, though now his strength was more comparable to his full strength, rather than that complete weakness of recent memory.

"How long was..."

"A day. After you disappeared, we gave you a couple of hours, then went looking for you." The nurse replied, a tone of anger creeping into her voice.

"I need to get... Why am i bound?" Riku asked, tugging on the cloth restraints that had been applied to his wrists and ankles.

"You obviously are a danger to yourself. We will keep you like this until you recover, then you will watched by a guard. It would be most dishonorable of the Queen to let one of her guests die of starvation. The poor cook would hang himself in shame." She said, deadly serious.

Riku didn't care about the Queen's honor or the cook getting himself killed. If it meant getting the cuffs off of him sooner, Riku would gladly dishonor the queen and hang the cook himself. At the same time if need be.

"And I am to be fed like some infant?"

"Initially yes, then maybe..."

"I am not your child to do with as you please!" Riku shouted at her, bringing his face as close to hers as he could with the restraints stopping him.

She recoiled in shock, and then the pathetic mask of sternness that she had been holding up broke, and she ran away crying. With the proper application of a few very weak gravity spells, Riku undid the bindings on his hands, and helped himself to the soup that had been left for him. Weakness again overtook him, and he went back to sleep.

* * *

"This is intolerable! I can no sniffle longer suffer his..his...attitude! I demand that I be replaced with someone who can suffer that bastard!" 

A loud slap echoed into Riku's room, as he was lying down, pretending sleep as he listened to the conversation down the hallway. His maid/nurse apparently didn't like him. For some reason Riku couldn't stop himself from smiling.

"You will do as you are told Elizabeth, and that will be that. Do I make myself clear?" Riku did not hear a response, only some blubbering and the sound of another slap.

A brief moment later, and there was a knock on his open door.

"Riku, its me, Queen Minnie."

"Come in."

"Riku, I have come to ask about your library habits. Do you normally read until you pass out?"

"No, I seem to have just, lost track of time for some reason. The books are interesting, I can assure you." Riku replied, "And the dreams I get after them are very interesting." Riku thought to himself.

"Hmmm, still, I do beleive that it would be best to limit yourself to only a few hours of reading per day, making sure to eat please. How about this. I believe i can have that rack of books, the black ones, yes? moved down to your room. No one else bothers to read here, so it that will help you be more inclined to eat, that would be better for everyone, now wouldn't it?" Queen Minnie asked ever so politely.

"That works. Sure."

"Excellent. Now I brought you some more soup, so please feel free to drink up. And in the morning, the bookcase will be ready for you."

"It will be rather difficult to read with these restraints."

"Well, I do believe that they are a bit excessive. As long as your promise not to leave your room without Elizabeth, I think we can have those removed."

"Done and done."

The soup was only a soup in the vaguest sense of the term. It was in reality a thick, rich stew, with small chunks of vegetables strewn throughout. Riku missed meat. Riku missed meat so very very much.

* * *

Riku was again standing in the void, with the 3 shapes around him. 

"Who are you! I Demand that you answer me!" Riku shouted at them. The shapes merely moved back and forth.

"Are you my victims then? The king? Maleficent? ...Rose?"

"Rose!" Riku sat up in bed, his bed soaked with sweat, and tears running down his face.

"Milord?" Elizabeth asked quietly from the other side of the door.

"I would like to take a bath." Riku said very slowly and carefully, restraining his voice from breaking and preventing any sobs from creeping in.

"Yes my lord, at once."

Riku looked out the window. The moon was 3/4s of the way to setting. His sleep schedule was completely destroyed. He would have to work on that. He dried his eyes on the bedsheets, one of the few dry corners, and put on his cape. He walked to the bathroom, and after removing the cape, relaxed into the bath.

"Is it as you wish milord?"

"My sheets need changing."

"Yes. Of course my Lord."

* * *

That morning, Riku was looking out the window, at the tower in the distance, when a knock on the door came. Riku opened it, and two broomsticks burst in, carrying long pieces of wood between them. Following them was another, carrying a bucket of nails and three hammers. In a remarkable amount of time, and in complete silence, the three had hammered together all the pieces of wood into a large, if unadorned, bookcase. No sooner had they taken their bucket and hammers out than a parade of brooms arrived, each carrying two books, and for 2 minutes, there was nothing but a line of brooms depositing books on the bookcase. What disturbed Riku more than anything else was the silence of it, the neat precision that required no noise. Frankly, he was extremely impressed by their efficiency. For about two seconds, and then he found himself reading the second of Kerba's books.

* * *

Many months passed, and Riku was agonized by the slow pace of his research into the black books. Elizabeth would constantly check on him, to make sure that he limited himself to only a few hours of reading per day. Compounding that with Riku's intense hunger for meat that was unabated, and that he had made no progress on understanding the dreams, his temper was becoming disconcertingly short. His day was not complete until Elizabeth had been sent running in tears, and Riku got the suspicion that she actually liked him abusing her like this. 

Riku's research turned up few clues. Apparently he wasn't the first who had done the breaking worlds tour. Kerba had done it, mentioning worlds that Riku had never heard of. Judging by how many books there were, there must have been thousands of worlds, now down to a handful, if Merlin was right. Riku wondered what happened to the worlds that were sealed against the heartless, like the colorless world that Kerba saved. However, neither Kerba, or any of the other self-named "deathlords", did repeat visits to any world. All struggled to continue on their quest, driven to succeed "where the predecessors have failed". All of them shared one fate in common: their book ended with them resolving to go after a certain woman.

"Luckily, I know what happens when you chase a woman, you lose, and then that...voice... rubs it in. So I apparently will be the one to succeed where they have failed. After all, I only have a few worlds left to do, and Kerba himself took care of 30 worlds. I wonder what happens when you finish?" Riku thought to himself, looking out again at the distant tower.

"Elizabeth!" Riku shouted

The duck entered quickly, but composed.

"Yes milord?"

"What is that tower that I see in the distance?"

"I do not see a tower milord, where is it?"

Riku stepped behind Elizabeth, and lined up his finger right between her eyes, pointing directly at the tower.

"I see nothing milord, just the clouds."

"I see. You may go now."

She bowed and left, and as he watched her leave, Riku noticed how tasty she looked. With just the right seasonings, he remembered a recipe of Timon's for some large bird, whose name he couldn't remember. Surely duck was close enough. Maybe a little extra salt was necessary

* * *

It had been several months since Riku had come to this world, and yet, he had not seen anything outside of the castle. Feeling that he was doing a poor job if he only saw part of the world, Riku resolved to see the rest of the world. 

"Elizabeth!"

"Yes milord? Is something the matter?"

"I will be taking a short journey, about two weeks in duration. I want you to inform this to the queen, and tell her that I appreciate all of her hospitality."  
"Of course milord. May I ask where you will be going?"

"To see the tower in the distance."

"Of course milord. I shall inform her majesty at once. Will you need any help in gathering your things? And what would you like the cook to prepare in the way of provisions?"

"My things I can handle myself. Please ask the cook to prepare for me some pies, the smaller the better."  
"Yes milord, right away."

Riku put on his new outfit, complete with Rose's stone set in the center. He wrapped up his older outfit, and put it in a pack that Elizabeth had procured for him. He went down to the kitchens, and added the sack of pies to his pack, and walked out of the castle into the city streets. The city before him was downright poor compared to the castle. Where the castle was fine stone, the buildings were made of painted wood, with thatch roofs. The people living in the buildings were the same as the castle attendants, ducks, dogs, and mice, with the occasional cow or pig around as well. Not one carnivore in the entire city. Well, maybe town was a better term for it. There was a blacksmith, a bakery, a tavern, and other such buildings of trade that one would expect in a town. There were no jewelers, or importers, or any other such things that Riku had seen in the city of Deningrad. The people stared at Riku in curiosity, hedged with fear. There were too few people here for him to throw the hood over his face and blend into the crowd, so Riku calmly began walking aimlessly, finding himself at the blacksmith. Curious as to what creature would work a blacksmith, Riku opened the door inside.

Working the forge was an old man, his muscles large with exertion, and sweat pouring off of him.

"Can I help you." The man asked, not looking up from his work, a plate of metal, still glowing red hot.

"I'm looking for someone who isn't an animal. Can you help?"

The man jerked in surprise, and Riku could see that his hair was bleached white, though he had no beard. He had long lines on his face, and a a head that was more bald than hair.

"Another, another human! By the Gods man, how did you get here? Who are you?"

"Slow down old man, you'll hurt yourself. My name is Riku, and I'm a traveler of sorts. Tell me, how did you manage to get here? I haven't seen another human since I arrived on this world."

"'This world'? That means... you are a world traveler aren't you. Of course, that makes sense. Where are my manners. Name's Fulton. John Fulton. I'm from the world of Blue Skies, in the main township there. Have you ever been there?"

"No, I have not. I don't think."  
"Its a small world, water is really scarce there, and the sky is so blue its indescribable.. I left when I was but a boy. I was looking for another world, looking to travel, much you like you seem to be doing. I managed to leave my world, but I got stuck here. Do you think you can take me home? I want to see the sky one more time before I die."

"No, I don' think I can. A lot of worlds have been destroyed, and from the many that are left, I don't think I can find your world."

"Or I'd rather not waste time going through all of them" Riku thought.

"Damn. Well, you wanted someone who wasn't an animal. What can I do for you?"

Riku summoned Betrayal and put it on the counter.

"Anything you can do with this?"

Fulton picked it up, studied it for a second, then put it back down. "No sir. It ain't metal, whatever it is. Sorry."

Riku picked up the keyblade and walked out.

* * *

A/N: My apologies, to all of you, for this extreme hiatus. I've been doing Role Playing games (specifically werewolf the Forsaken), and thats been eating up all of my creativity. Soon this story will end, and I will begin the second story. (This is a three parter). Suggestions on if I should make each a separate story, or should I just make it one very long story? Your opinion matters. 


End file.
